Coach and Athlete Burnout - West Virginia University

Does Perception of Decision-Making Style Predict Burnout Among Swimmers?
Burnout 30
Because it was hypothesized that collegiate swimmers’ perception of their coach’s
decision-making style would influence their own reported levels of burnout, it was
logical to ascertain the predictability of decision-making style on swimmers’ burnout. To
examine this, three stepwise multiple regression analyses were conducted. Each burnout
subscale served as the criterion variable in each analysis. To determine what, if any,
additional demographic predictor variables should be included in the analyses (besides
autocratic and democratic decision-making styles), in addition to testing for
multicolinearity, a Pearson product-moment correlation matrix was utilized. The results
revealed no significant relationships between athletes’ demographic information (e.g.
number of years swimming competitively, number of hours per week spent on
swimming-related duties) and any of the three burnout subscales. Therefore, no
additional demographic variables were included in the regression analyses. Further,
neither of the predictor variables (autocratic decision-making style, democratic decision-
making style) were found to be highly correlated with one another. Therefore,
multicolinearity was not of concern.
The only statistically significant predictor of the emotional and physical
exhaustion component of burnout was the perception of a democratic decision-making
style (F (1, 89) =7.39, p