Coach and Athlete Burnout - West Virginia University

Burnout 39
results of the analyses did not support this hypothesis; collegiate swimming coaches’
perception of their decision-making style was not found to be significantly related to any
of the three burnout subscales. Subsequent analyses confirmed this finding, as coaches
classified as being high in their use of autocratic or democratic decision-making
behaviors did not significantly differ from one another on any of the three burnout
subscales. There were no differences in burnout revealed between male and female
coaches as well. Finally, perception of decision-making style did not significantly predict
burnout in collegiate swimming coaches.
Several propositions can be offered in understanding why no link was found
between coaches’ perception of their decision-making style and their reported levels of
burnout. The present study was one of the few to isolate a particular type of leadership
behavior and examine its influence on both athlete and coach burnout (e.g. decision-
making style). It is likely that the role of coaches’ decision-making style by itself is not
of significant importance in understanding coach burnout. Rather, its impact on coach
burnout may be more prominent when taken into consideration with other types of
leadership (i.e. social support, feedback, training and instruction) or other variables (role
ambiguity, role conflict, anxiety, etc.). Because burnout is now seen as more of a
multidimensional construct, it seems logical that personal and situational variables will
collectively contribute to burnout among coaches.
The failure to reveal gender differences in the present study, although not
supporting the secondary hypotheses, is not surprising as previous research has yielded
equivocal findings (Davenport, 1998). Caccese and Mayerberg (1984) found that female
coaches experienced significantly higher levels of burnout denoted by greater levels of