Sport emotions profiles: Relationships with burnout and coping skills among competitive athletes

Abstract

The aims of the study were to identify naturally occurring competitive emotional profiles and examine whether participants from several profiles significantly differed on burnout and coping. A sample of 424 competitive athletes (Mage = 32.38; SD = 13.16) completed a series of self-report questionnaires. Comparing the sample as a whole, cluster analyses revealed two emotional profiles: (a) High unpleasant emotions and low pleasant emotions; and (b) moderately high pleasant emotions and low unpleasant emotions. Results of MANOVAs showed significant differences across emotional profiles on burnout (emotional/physical exhaustion, reduced accomplishment, sport devaluation) and coping (resignation, distancing, venting emotions and mental distraction). Therefore, results suggested that an emotion profile approach offered a robust heuristic for examining emotions in a more holistic method to unpack their complex associations with key outcomes (coping, burnout) and they have implications for intervention.