ABSTRACT
Introduction:
In the context of sports, one of the main recommendations for a better understanding of burnout syndrome and coping is to carry out longitudinal studies that describe the process of development of the syndrome, and the strategies used for its prevention and control.
Objectives:
To analyze perceptions of the dimensions of burnout and coping strategies during a sporting season, and to correlate the temporal characteristics of burnout and coping strategies.
Methods:
Through a longitudinal design, the study included 15 male volleyball professional athletes (aged 24.00 ± 3.55 years) participating in the Superliga Nacional (Brazilian Volleyball Super League). Each participant completed the translated versions of the Athlete Burnout Questionnaire and Athletic Coping Skills Inventory. Data were collected in four stages of a sporting season. The behavior of the burnout and coping indicators were verified by the Friedman test, with the Wilcoxon post hoc test, and Spearman's correlation coefficient (rho) was used to verify the correlations between the burnout and coping indicators.
Results:
A significant increase was observed in sport devaluation and overall levels of burnout as the season progressed, but there were no significant differences in the use of coping strategies at all four times. Significant inverse correlations were observed between the dimension burnout, reduced sense of sport accomplishment, and the coping strategy, confidence/motivation at all four times of the season.
Conclusion:
The results show an increase in the perception of burnout in the athletes with the build-up of training and competition, as well as the requirement for optimal performance in the main competition. The study also showed the importance of the motivational factor in the emergence of burnout.
Keywords:
burnout, professional; adaptation, psychological; volleyball