Coach, Parent, and Peer Motivational Climates as Predictors of Athlete Burnout and Persistence in NAIA College Athletes: A Correlational Study

The purpose of this study is to examine how motivational climates created by coaches, parents, and peers relate to athlete burnout and intention to continue sport participation among NAIA collegiate athletes. Motivational climate refers to the social and psychological environment surrounding sport participation, particularly whether effort, improvement, and cooperation are emphasized (task-involving climate) or whether competition, comparison, and outperforming others are emphasized (ego-involving climate). Research grounded in Achievement Goal Theory suggests that these climates shape athletes’ well-being, motivation, and long-term engagement in sport (Atkins et al., 2015). The present study seeks to determine the unique and combined contributions of coach-created, parent-created, and peer-created motivational climates in predicting two outcomes: (1) athlete burnout, defined as emotional/physical exhaustion, reduced sense of accomplishment, and sport devaluation, and (2) athletes’ intentions to continue participating in their sport. Building on previous findings, I hypothesize that task-involving climates will be negatively associated with burnout and positively associated with intention to continue sport, whereas ego-involving climates will show the opposite relationship (Atkins et al., 2015). Additionally, I hypothesize that coach and peer climates will be stronger predictors of burnout and continuation intentions among collegiate athletes than parent climate, given the increased autonomy and sport immersion at the college level. This study will employ a quantitative, correlational research design. Approximately 50 collegiate athletes from multiple NAIA sports teams at Olivet Nazarene University will complete paper-and-pencil surveys during scheduled team meetings. Measures include validated assessments of coach motivational climate (PMCSQ-2) (Newton et al., 2000), peer motivational climate (PMCYSQ) (Vazou et al., 2006), parent motivational climate (MCISCQ-Parent) (Harwood et al., 2019), athlete burnout (ABQ) (Raedeke & Smith, 2001), and intention to continue in sport. A multiple regression analysis will be used to determine the extent to which each motivational climate source predicts burnout and intention to continue participation, controlling for demographic and sport-related variables.