Burnout in college football players : prevalence and change over a competitive season
- UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Alessa Rae Lennon (Creator)
- Institution
- The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
- Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
- Advisor
- Pam Brown
Abstract: College athletes often experience burnout related to the high demands of academics and their sport. As a result of these demands, they face potential stressors which influence their overall level of wellness, including symptoms of burnout. Despite the fact stress and burnout are important factors to consider in the overall wellness of college football players, there is a lack of longitudinal literature evaluating these issues and the role that additional factors such as sleep and perceived wellness have on burnout within a competition season. The purpose of this research was to gain insight into the prevalence of athlete burnout on a single collegiate football team, and how the symptoms of burnout and other commonly used metrics for athlete wellness change over the course of a competition season. This study evaluated athlete burnout, sleep behaviors, mental wellness, and specific identifiers of stress at four time points during the competitive season. The prevalence of high burnout ranged from 13-18.4% with no significant change in global burnout scores over the course of the season. Mental wellness scores at midseason were significantly lower (i.e., improved) compared to all other time points. Even though there was no significant change in sleep behavior scores over the season, categorically sleep quantity and satisfaction worsened throughout the competitive season. Most athletes did not obtain the minimum recommendation for nightly sleep quantity. At preseason 45% reported obtaining < 7 hours of sleep/night, and this increased to 75% obtaining < 7 hours of sleep/night at mid-season. This analysis provided important information about sleep quantity and other behaviors that can be improved through sleep hygiene education. Furthermore, categorical changes were found for identifiers of stress. Academic stress was reported at a greater frequency than sport and personal life stressors for both midseason and post-season time points. Knowing how stressors change over a competitive season gives rationale for providing targeted resources at various time points in future competitive seasons to help combat these stressors. A greater understanding of the manifestation of burnout and stress in collegiate athletes can help provide sport performance professionals the information to recognize potential factors associated with athlete burnout to then intervene before burnout happens, and better integrate this information with metrics that are already collected on student-athlete health and performance.
Burnout in college football players : prevalence and change over a competitive season
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Created on 5/1/2024
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Dissertation
- Language: English
- Date: 2024
- Keywords
- Athlete burnout, Collegiate football athletes, Mental wellness, Sleep behaviors
- Subjects
- Football players $x Health and hygiene
- Burn out (Psychology)