What makes coaches burn out in their job? Prevalance and correlates of coaches’ burnout in Poland

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the range of burnout among sport coaches in Poland and identify its personal (especially psychological) and situational correlates. Methods: The sample consisted of 174 male and 70 female coaches from 21 sports disciplines, aged from 23 to 82 (M = 39.00, SD = 10.93). Coaching experience ranged from 1 to 40 years (M = 12.00, SD = 9.99). Participants filled in four questionnaires: Maslach Burnout Inventory, Coaching Efficacy Scale. The questionnaire of adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism, and Preferred Management Style Questionnaire. Results: Coaches reported experiencing low levels of emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation, but high level of reduced sense of personal accomplishments. The latter was observed in 61.06% of respondents. The correlates of individual dimensions of burnout turned out to be: (a) emotional exhaustion – gender, age, deriving financial satisfaction from one’s job, motivation efficacy, maladaptive perfectionism, democratic management style, and the nature of competition; (b) depersonalisation – deriving financial satisfaction from one’s job, building character efficacy, maladaptive perfectionism, democratic, autocratic and liberal management styles; (c) reduced sense of personal accomplishments – deriving financial satisfaction from one’s job, motivation efficacy, game strategy efficacy, maladaptive perfectionism, and democratic management style. Conclusions: Our study suggests that sport coaches are not emotionally exhausted and do not depersonalise their charges, but are professionally undervalued. This phenomenon is related to several personal and situational variables.