Early Athlete Sport Specialization and the Impact on Play and Burnout Mentalities in Division I College Athletes

Early Athlete Sport Specialization and the Impact on Play and Burnout Mentalities in Division I College Athletes Public Deposited

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Leeke, Rachel
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Exercise and Sport Science

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In recent years, the National Collegiate Athletic Association has stated an increased focus on health and wellness. It is important to understand an athlete’s mental outlook in an effort to impede the likelihood of burnout as a result of negative sport experience. This study’s focus is to assess the student-athlete's perspective as they approach their sport by examining the age of sport specialization and other independent variables. Doing so can aid coaches in instituting more targeted measures (i.e. team bonding events, alteration of coaching style, etc.) in order for students to get the most out of their athletic experience. Additionally, understanding mitigating factors such as when an athlete started sport, gender, individual v. team sport and revenue v. Olympic sport factors could influence future parenting decisions and encourage sport-governing bodies to provide recommendations for better mental health accommodations. The creation of the Play Mentalities Instrument (PMI-20) used in conjunction with the Athlete Burnout Questionnaire filled an important gap in research examining collegiate athletes mentalities toward their sport considering no study has combined the two measures to gain perspective on the mindset of Division I athletes. As a result, an inverse relationship was uncovered between play and burnout.

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