The relations between sleep, stress, and burnout amongst high-performance youth athletes

Abstract

Previous research has identified chronic stress to be the main contributor to burnout, and has linked sleep impairment with burnout. However, these three variables have not been examined together. Furthermore, despite junior elite athletes being identified as especially susceptible to burnout, few studies have investigated burnout amongst them. Hence, this study aimed to identify prospective links between sleep, stress and burnout by investigating the relationship between sleep, perceived stress; and their interactions and how burnout in high performance youth athletes was influenced. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 71 high-performance youth athletes (34 females, 37 males) aged 12-16 years (mean 14.17 years, SD 1.09) in Singapore. Athletes completed a 5-day sleep diary, Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and Athlete Burnout Questionnaire (ABQ). Pearson’s correlations indicated a significant positive relationship between perceived stress and burnout; and negative relationships between sleep quality and perceived stress; burnout; and age. Multiple regression analysis found that sex and perceived stress, had statistically significant effects on burnout after controlling for sleep duration, sleep quality and age. Perceived stress was found to be a significant predictor of burnout. Post-hoc tests found sleep quality to have a significant effect on female athletes’ burnout, but not males. Results also suggest that females are more sensitive to stress than males, causing them to register higher burnout despite similar perceived stress scores. Given the lack of research on youth athletes, this paper provides novel information regarding sleep, stress and burnout profiles of elite youth athletes in Singapore.