Perfectionism and Junior Athlete Burnout: The Mediating Role of Autonomous and Controlled Motivation

By Gareth E. Jowett, A. Hill, Howard K. Hall, T. Curran. 2013

103 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Certain dimensions of perfectionism appear to place junior athletes at greater risk of burnout. The current study adopted self-determination theory to explain why this is the case. Specifically, as athlete burnout is believed to have a motivational signature that can be described using motivational regulation, the study examined whether autonomous motivation and controlled motivation mediated the perfectionism–burnout relationship. Junior athletes (n = 211, M age = 15.61 years, s = 1.73) completed measures of multidimensional perfectionism, athlete burnout, and motivational regulation. Structural equation modeling revealed that autonomous motivation and controlled motivation partially mediated the relationship between perfectionism and burnout. Perfectionistic concerns had a positive direct and indirect (via controlled motivation) relationship with burnout. In contrast, perfectionistic strivings had a negative direct and indirect (via autonomous motivation) relationship with burnout. The findings suggest that perfectionistic concerns encompass a pattern of motivational regulation, which contributes to the occurrence of athlete burnout, whereas perfectionistic strivings encompass a pattern of motivational regulation inversely associated with athlete burnout.

Subfields: Clinical Psychology, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/2c292b41dda50f12d74e1c01b39ec591a2206e29

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In Clinical Psychology

In Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

In Social Psychology

Citations in the corpus

Stability, change, and implications of students’ motivation profiles: A latent transition analysis (2017, background): “…more autonomous forms of motivation (via selfreferenced criteria, self-improvement or growth strivings; Harvey et al., 2015; Miquelon, Vallerand, Grouzet, & Cardinal, 2005) and more controlled form of motivation (via harsh self-criticism and always-salient conditions of worth; Jowett et al., 2013).”
Perfectionism in Employees: Work Engagement, Workaholism, and Burnout (2016, background): “controlled motivation (introjected regulation, external regulation), the mediation model that Jowett et al. (2013) suggested for burnout in athletes may also hold for burnout in employees (see Figure 1, Panel A).”