Burnout in sport is described as emotional and physical exhaustion that can develop from chronic stress (Dubuc-Charbonneau & Durand-Bush, 2015). Burnout can negatively impact an athlete’s performance, and in worst cases, lead to college athletes terminating their sport participation (Madigan, 2021). Research has shown that burnout interventions focusing on improving coping skills are effective in reducing burnout in college student-athletes (Madigan, 2021). However, these interventions are too costly with interventions lasting season long (Dubuc-Charbonneau & Durand-Bush, 2015). Recent research has shown that there is relationship between stress mindset and burnout with college student athletes who were experiencing burnout symptoms having a higher stress-is-debilitating mindset than those with a stress-enhancing mindset (Shipherd, Avery, Gomez, & Renner, 2021). Thus, the purpose of the present study was to examine if stress mindset interventions could help in alleviating burnout symptoms in college student-athletes. A total of 13 participants took part in the study by completing the stress mindset measure (SMM) and the athlete burnout questionnaire (ABQ) and then watched three stress-is-enhancing mindset videos and completed a brief manipulation check. Two weeks after, a second survey was emailed to participants that included the SMM and the ABQ. No significant differences were found between pre and post SMM or ABQ. Therefore, the stress mindset intervention used in this study was not effective in reducing burnout symptoms.

Faculty mentor: Dr. Amber Shipherd

Department of Health and Kinesiology