The role of athletic identity and passion in predicting burnout in adolescent female athletes

This study examined whether adolescent athletes' levels of sport burnout would be predicted by their level and type of both passion and athletic identity. Female high-school-aged athletes (N = 186) completed a series of questionnaires to measure study variables. The results of three hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that athletes' levels of harmonious passion served as negative predictors for all three dimensions of burnout, while obsessive passion positively predicted scores only on the exhaustion subscale. In addition, the subdimensions of athletic identity contributed a unique amount to the prediction of some aspects of burnout. These results indicate that both passion and athletic identity are important correlates or predictors of burnout levels, with harmonious passion offering the most protective effects.