Date of Thesis

Spring 2025

Description

Burnout occurs when an athlete experiences stress and fails to cope with this stress, resulting in loss of interest in sport, emotional and physical exhaustion, and negative attitudes towards an athlete’s abilities. Female collegiate student-athletes suffer disproportionately from exhaustion, stress, and body image concerns compared to their male counterparts. The present study explored the relationship between stress and burnout among female collegiate athletes while also investigating how body image dissatisfaction (BID), weight pressure, and coping moderated this relationship and individually correlated to burnout and stress. Comparisons were made between sport type, lean versus non-lean, on stress, burnout, body concerns, weight pressure, and coping. Participants were female Division I collegiate student-athletes (N=133) from Bucknell University (N=117), Syracuse University (N=3), and University of Vermont (N=13). Of the participants, 63 were lean sport athletes and 70 were non-lean sport athletes. Using a self-report methodology, participants completed several questionnaires. Results indicated significant correlations between stress and burnout, stress and BID, stress and weight pressure, burnout and BID, burnout and weight pressure, coping and stress, and coping and burnout. No evidence of moderation was identified for any variable, suggesting that the relationship between stress and burnout did not depend on external factors and that stress was the main predictor of burnout. Non-lean and lean sport athletes were found to significantly differ on the study variables in that non-lean participants tended to have higher levels of BID, burnout, and more adaptive coping skills than lean sport athletes.

Keywords

Burnout, stress, athlete, body image, lean, non-lean, coping, female

Access Type

Honors Thesis

Degree Type

Bachelor of Arts

Major

Psychology

First Advisor

John Ptacek

Second Advisor

Stephanie Cárdenas

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Psychology Commons

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