Examining possible relationships between mindfulness, stress, school- and sport performances and athlete burnout

Abstract

This article investigates the impact of mindfulness on stress, perceived performance in school and sports, and on athlete burnout. In the present investigation 483 Norwegian junior athletes from seven different schools for elite sports were invited to partake in an online survey of which 382 athletes responded (79%). The athletes were from different sports such as cross country skiing, Nordic combined, ski jumping, volleyball, handball, track and field, ice hockey, biathlon, cycling and orienteering. We tested whether mindfulness affected stress, perceived performance in school and sports, and athlete burnout utilizing structural equation modeling. As hypothesized, mindfulness was negatively related with stress and burnout, whereas stress was positively related with burnout and negatively related with perceived performances in school and sports. Mindfulness was positive related with perceived performances in sports and in school, whereas perceived performances in sports where negatively related with burnout. Hence, for this investigation it seemed that mindfulness was an important stress buffer and may help elite youth athletes to avoid burnout and perform better. The results are discussed in regard of applied implications and possible future research.

Full text

3
Examining possible Relationships
between mindfulness, stress, school-
and sport performances and athlete
burnout
Frode Moen
Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
Roger A. Federici
Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
Frank Abrahamsen
Norwegian School of Sport Science, Norway
International Journal of
Coaching Science
Vol. 9 No. 1
January 2015. pp03-19
Abstract
This article investigates the impact of mindfulness on stress, perceived performance in school and sports,
and on athlete burnout. In the present investigation 483 Norwegian junior athletes from seven different
schools for elite sports were invited to partake in an online survey of which 382 athletes responded (79%).
The athletes were from different sports such as cross country skiing, Nordic combined, ski jumping,
volleyball, handball, track and field, ice hockey, biathlon, cycling and orienteering. We tested whether
mindfulness affected stress, perceived performance in school and sports, and athlete burnout utilizing
structural equation modeling. As hypothesized, mindfulness was negatively related with stress and burnout,
whereas stress was positively related with burnout and negatively related with perceived performances in
school and sports. Mindfulness was positive related with perceived performances in sports and in school,
whereas perceived performances in sports where negatively related with burnout. Hence, for this
investigation it seemed that mindfulness was an important stress buffer and may help elite youth athletes to
avoid burnout and perform better. The results are discussed in regard of applied implications and possible
future research.
Keywords: mindfulness, stress, performance, athlete burnout
*Corresponding Author: Frode Moen, Department of Education, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, N-7491 Trondheim,
Norway. Phone: +47 72 56 81 76, Mobile: +47 932 48 750 E-Mail: frmoe@online.no

Frode Moen, Roger A. Federici, Frank Abrahamsen
4
Introduction
Young athletes who have ambitions in their sports will often experience performance anxiety and
worries during their struggles to develop into elite athletes (Hardy, Mullen & Martin, 2001). Moreover, the
effort to develop owns capacities and possible worries also have the potential to stimulate explicit
information about how they perform their sport during execution (Beilock, Bertenthal, McCoy & Carr,
2004; Masters, 2000; Rotella, 2001 & 2012; Wulf, 2007). Importantly, several studies claim that an explicit
attentional focus during performance effects performance negatively (Beilock, Carr, MacMahon & Starkes,
2002; Ford, Hodges & Williams, 2005; Gray, 2004; Wulf, 2007). Thus, the thoughts and emotions that
occur in the coping process have the potential to become major stressors for an athlete, and these emotions
and the coping process can affect his or her performance negatively (Eysenck, Derakshan, Santos & Calvo,
2007; Gardner & Moore, 2007; Rumbold, Fletcher & Daniels, 2012).
Research claims that an athlete’s attention must be aimed at the present moment and the task at
hand to prevent unnecessary stress in the coping process (Ericsson, Krampe & Tesch-Rӧhmer, 1993). An
athlete’s ability to focus his or her attention towards the aspects that are relevant and most important is
therefore critical in order to make the most of an athlete’s potential and to prevent unnecessary stress. The
purpose of this study is to explore potential relationships between mindfulness, perceived stress, school and
sport performances, and athletes’ burnout among Norwegian junior athletes in sport.
Theoretical framework
Mindfulness is defined as paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and without judgment
(Kabat-Zinn, 1994). The mindful-awareness state is claimed to produce several beneficial outcomes (Martin,
1997; Teasdale, Segal, Williams, & Mark, 1995; Weinstein & Ryan, 2011). First of all, it is found that the
practice of mindfulness helps reducing stress symptoms (Baer, 2003; Grossman, Niemann, Schmidt &
Walach, 2004), improve wellbeing (Brown& Ryan, 2003; Carlsson & Brown, 2005) and physical health in
general (Grossman et al., 2004). Mindfulness-based interventions are also found to reduce other stress
related symptoms such as pain, anxiety, and depression (e.g., Kabat-Zinn et al., 1992; Teasdale et al.,
2002). Second, it is also claimed that mindfulness practice can be relevant for athletes in a wide range of
performance enhancement cases such as performance development, performance dysfunction, performance
impairment, and performance termination (Bernier, Thienot, Codron, & Fournier, 2009; Kee & Wang, 2008;
Kaufman Glass & Arnkoff, 2009; Marks, 2008). Third, researchers have shown that mindfulness is
negatively associated with burnout (Mc Cracken & Yang, 2008). Jouper and Gustafsson (2013) showed that
mindfulness practice can help athletes who suffered from burnout to recover from exhaustion, fatigue and

International Journal of Coaching Science Vol. 9 No. 1 January 2015
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frequent fever reactions and can help to improve psychological feelings of energy and primordial force as
well as sports functioning.
Stress
The Cognitive Activation Theory of Stress (CATS; Ursin & Eriksen, 2004) defines stress neutrally,
which means that stress by itself is not good or bad. However, Ursin and Eriksen (2004) argue that
prolonged stress and/or excessive stress loads might be harmful to the person. This theory has also been
used in sport previously (e.g., Abrahamsen, Roberts, Pensgaard, & Ronglan, 2008; Abrahamsen &
Pensgaard, 2012; Eriksen, Murison, Pensgaard, & Ursin, 2005; Kristiansen, Abrahamsen, & Stensrud, 2012),
and may be a fruitful addition in stress research for several reasons. First of all, it highlights that stress
may help athletes to grow physically and mentally through training, in that athletes grow different skills to
handle stressors. Secondly, the theory also highlights that if the stress reaction persist over time, it may be
harmful for the athlete. Physical stress load over time could for instance be analogues to overreaching, and
burnout could be a consequence from a prolonged stress period entailing physical and/or psychological
loads. A third important part of CATS is the way the stress theory defines coping. In CATS, coping is
seen as positive response outcome expectancies (PROE), rather than ways of coping more traditionally
utilized. PROE means that the athlete considers having the resources to attain a desired outcome, which
will then reduce the athlete’s stress response. Thus, an athlete that succeeds in sport (or life in general)
may have positive expectancies, and thus have less likelihood to experience the negative consequences of
stress, such as burnout.
The range of stressors junior elite athletes can meet in their daily life is immense. Elite sport is
physically and psychologically highly demanding and athletes need to work hard over a number of years in
order to achieve their maximum performance level (Ericsson, 2006). To reach an international level in elite
sports, a minimum training spans of 10 years or more are required (Ericsson, et al., 1993; Ericsson &
Chamess, 1994; Smith, 2003; Viru &Viru, 2001), where athletes train volumes of about 700-800 hours a
year or more, with an upper limit of approximately 1200 hours a year (Berg & Forsberg, 2000). In order
to avoid maladaptation from the highly physically demanding elite training, non-training stressors must be
considered in combination with the training load (Gustafsson, Kenttä & Hassmén, 2011). In overtraining
research, physiological stress historically has been considered to be the main antecedent to training
maladaptation and underperformance (Kuipers & Keizer, 1988; Morgan, Brown, Raglin, O’Connor, &
Ellickson, 1987), while burnout research has had a greater focus on psychosocial factors (e.g., Cresswell &
Eklund, 2005; Lemyre, Treasure, & Roberts, 2006; Raedeke, 1997). But also in research focusing on
overtraining, non-training stressors have gradually received more attention (Brown, Wilson, & Sharp, 2006;

Frode Moen, Roger A. Federici, Frank Abrahamsen
6
Meehan, Bull, Wood, & James, 2004). As an example Lehmann et al. (1999) considered stress from
training, competition, and lifestyle factors as a major cause of overtraining and underperformance in sport.
Thus, accumulated stress over time can become chronic (McEwen, 1998; Semmer, McGrath, & Beehr,
2005; Ursin & Eriksen, 2004). This may explain how many, sometimes small, daily hassles can contribute
to the impairment of training adaptation, the development of overtraining syndrome, and ultimately burnout
(Cresswell, 2009; Gustafsson, Hassmén, Kenttä & Johansson, 2008; Rowbottom, 2000).
Performance
Excellence in performance and in life begins with a vision of where you want to go and
commitment to do what it takes to get there (Orlick, 2000). Performances in elite sports are the result of
many years of well planned, systematical, highly demanding training, both physically and mentally
(Ericsson, Charness, Feltovich & Hoffman, 2006). The main purpose of all training is to adapt their
physiology and psychology to the specific requirements of the specific sport and thereby to enhance
athletes’ performance level by achieving positive training adaptation through use of an optimal training load
(O`Toole, 1998). Physiological adaptation to training depends on the relationship between stress
(physiological, psychological and social stress) and adequate regeneration. The higher the degree of
adaptation to the training process is, the greater the potential for high levels of performance will be
(Bompa & Haff, 2009).
Interestingly, research claims that an athlete’s attention must be aimed at the present moment and the
task at hand to develop his or her potential optimally and prevent unnecessary stress in the coping process
(Ericsson, et al., 1993). It is the engagement the athlete is willing to invest in deliberate practice that
differentiates individual performance levels (Ericsson, et al., 1993). Deliberate practice is the type of
training that requires intense attention and hard work, and does not necessarily lead to instantaneous
rewards. Rather, the payoff may be seen in the long run.
Burnout
Since the earliest accounts of burnout, there has been a nearly unanimous agreement that burnout is
a cognitive-emotional reaction to stress, characterized by high levels of exhaustion resulting from the
chronic demands made on a person’s resources (Raedeke & Smith, 2009). Coaches and athletes in elite
junior sports are constantly experimenting, deliberately or not, testing what training loads the athletes may
endure, in order to develop the athletes’ potential. Many junior athletes work very hard to become elite
athletes and will meet a range of stressors in their struggle to develop optimally. Eventually they reach a
point when the total load of stressors is too strenuous. Although the etiology of burnout is not yet fully

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clear, the majority of burnout-research has adopted a stress perspective with a focus on both antecedents
and symptoms of burnout (Goodger, Gorely, Lavalle, & Harwood, 2007). This research supports that a
stress perspective on the burnout syndrome is viable (Black & Smith, 2007; Gustafsson & Skoog, 2012;
Jouper & Gustafsson, 2013; Raedeke & Smith, 2001; 2004).
Athlete burnout is viewed as a multidimensional construct that consists of three central dimensions:
1) emotional and physical exhaustion, 2) reduced sense of accomplishment, and 3) sport devaluation
(Raedeke & Smith, 2009). Emotional and physical exhaustion is the most obvious manifestation of burnout
and is characterized by feelings of emotional and physical fatigue stemming from the psychosocial and
physical demands associated with training and competing. This dimension is associated with intense training
and competition. A reduced sense of accomplishment is characterized by feelings of inefficacy and a
tendency to evaluate oneself negatively in terms of sports performance and accomplishments. This
dimension is related to skills and abilities, and athletes who are experiencing this phenomenon are unable
to achieve personal goals or they perform below expectations. Sport devaluation is defined as a negative,
detached attitude toward the sport, reflected by a lack of concern regarding the sport itself and the athlete’s
performance quality. Thus, athlete burnout is viewed as an experiential state observed from the athlete’s
perspective.
In a 25-year review of the burnout literature, Schaufeli and Buunk (2003) outlined five categories of
symptoms associated with the construct: affective symptoms as depressed mood, cognitive symptoms as
feeling helpless, physical symptoms as feeling exhausted or ill, behavioral symptoms as impaired
performance, and motivational symptoms as a lack of enthusiasm. These symptoms are observed in sports
and have implications regarding the athletes’ performance (Goodger, et al., 2007).
As discussed above, athletes’ burnout symptoms seem to be caused by a complex interaction of
multiple stressors. Especially young athletes who are attending high school education at specialized sport
schools are exposed to a wide range of stressors, as many of them have ambitions both academically in
school and in their sports (Moen, 2013). Possible unfulfilled expectations in school or sports can become
contributors for higher levels of burnout (Goodger, et al., 2007; Gould & Dieffenbach, 2002; Gustafsson,
Kenttä, Hassmén & Lundqvist, 2007). Thus, it should be important to further study interactions between
variables that have an impact on burnout so that the burnout syndrome will be fully understood.
The present study
The purpose of the present study is to explore potential relationships between mindfulness, perceived
stress, school and sport performances, and athletes’ burnout among Norwegian junior athletes in sport.
Based on our theoretical review we expect that mindfulness relates positively to performance in school and

Frode Moen, Roger A. Federici, Frank Abrahamsen
8
sport, and negatively to stress and burnout. We also expect that stress relates negatively to performance in
school and sport, and positively to burnout. Finally, we expect that performance in school and sport relate
negatively to burnout. The expected relations between the variables in our theoretical model are shown in
figure 1 below.
Figure 1. Theoretical model of the relations between the constructs.
Method
Participants
Four hundred and eighty three junior athletes from seven different Norwegian high schools for elite
sports were invited to voluntarily participate in an online questionnaire measuring psychological variables
such as need satisfaction, stress and athlete burnout. The athletes were participants in different sports such
as cross country skiing, biathlon, Nordic combined, shooting, ice-hockey, ski jumping, alpine skiing, cycling,
track and field, football, orienteering, handball and volleyball. From these 483 participants, 382 (216 males
and 166 females) completed the data collection, which gives a response rate of 79%. The sample had a
mean age of 18 ½ years, ranging from 17 to 20 years.
procedure
The general variables. The variables examined here include items and inventories such as age,
gender, type of sport, performance level, type of school, need-satisfaction and degree of athlete-centered
coaching. All measurements used in this study were based on previously developed scales proven to hold

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both satisfactory validity and reliability. The measurements were originally in English. The measurements
were translated into Norwegian and slightly adjusted for the purpose of this study by the authors.
The Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS). To measure the degree of mindfulness, the
validated Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) was used (Brown & Ryan, 2003). By use of a
double Translation-Back-Translation technique this version was translated from English to Norwegian by the
author. Participants reported how often they believed they currently had experiences referenced by each of
the 15 items (e.g. ‘‘I do jobs or tasks automatically without being aware of what I am doing” or ‘‘I find
myself preoccupied with the future or the past”) on a 6-point Likert scale ranging from “almost always”
(1) to “almost never” (6). Higher scores indicated higher degrees of dispositional mindfulness. The
reliability of the 15-item scale in the present study was .93.
The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-14). To measure stress, the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS; Cohen,
Kamarck & Mermelstein, 1983) was employed. The PSS measures self-appraised stress (e.g., ‘‘During the
past month, how often have you felt that you were unable to control the important things in your life?’’
on a 5-point Likert-type scale from 0 (‘‘never’’) to 4 (‘‘very often’’). The questions are general in nature,
are, therefore, relatively context-free (Cohen & Williamson, 1988), and measure the degree to which
respondents find their lives unpredictable, uncontrollable, and overloading, all of which are central to the
stress experience (Cohen et al., 1983). The authors translated the instrument into Norwegian, but reduced it
into a 4 item questionnaire. The reliability for the measurement was .65.
Perceived satisfaction with progress in sport and school. Individual performance from the Athlete
Satisfaction Questionnaire (ASQ) was used to measure athletes’ perceived satisfaction with their own
progress in sport (Riemer & Toon, 2001). This subscale seeks to measure the athlete's perceived satisfaction
with his/her own task performance. Task performance includes a perception of absolute performance,
improvements in performance and goal achievement. An example of item: “I am satisfied with the degree
to which I have reached my performance goals during the season.” The athletes were asked to consider 4
items and how satisfied they were with their own progress in sport during the last year on a 7-point scale
ranging from not at all satisfied (1), to extremely satisfied (7). The Cronbach’s alpha for the ASQ was .96.
The athletes were also asked to consider 4 items and how satisfied they were with their own progress in
school on the same liking scale. The reliability for this measurement was .95.

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The Athlete Burnout Questionnaire. A reduced version of the Athlete Burnout Questionnaire (ABQ)
was translated into Norwegian using a double-translation-back-translation technique (Raedeke & Smith, 2009)
and employed in the present study. The stem for each question was ‘‘How often do you feel this way?’’
Athletes were requested to rate the extent to which the items address their participation motives on a
five-point Likert scale anchored by (1) “Almost Never” and (5) “Almost Always”. The original ABQ has
three five-item subscales assessing the three key dimensions of burnout: (1) a reduced sense of
accomplishment, (2) emotional and physical exhaustion, and (3) devaluation of sports participation. However,
only the accomplishment and devaluation subscales were employed in this study because the stress scale
had very large correlation with the exhaustion subscale in our theoretical model. Examples of items
covering these dimensions are respectively: “It seems that no matter what I do, I don’t perform as well as
I should”, and “I have negative feelings toward sports”. The reliability for each dimension was .79 and .79.
Data analysis
The data were analyzed by means of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation
modeling (SEM) using the AMOS 21 program. We first tested a measurement model of the constructs by
means of CFA. Secondly, we explored relations between the variables by means of structural equation
modeling (SEM). SEM is a statistical methodology that takes a confirmatory approach to the analysis
(Byrne, 2010). In this approach, a hypothesized model of the relations between the constructs is tested
statistically to determine the extent to which it is consistent with the data, which is referred to as the
goodness of fit. If the goodness of fit is adequate, the plausibility of the proposed relations among the
constructs is supported. To assess the model fit, we used well-established indices, such as CFI, IFI, TLI,
and RMSEA, as well as the chi-square test. For the CFI, IFI, and TLI indices, values greater than .90 are
typically considered acceptable, and values greater than .95 indicate a good fit of the data (Byrne, 2010;
Hu & Bentler, 1999). For well-specified models, an RMSEA of .06 or less reflects a good fit (Hu &
Bentler, 1999; Tabachnick & Fidell, 2007).
Results
Correlations and descriptive statistics
Table 1 shows the correlations between the study variables as well as the possible maximum scores,
statistical means, standard deviations, and Cronbach’s alphas.

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Table 1. Pearson correlations and descriptive statistics of the study variables
The zero order correlations between the study variables vary from zero (+/- .01 to .19) to strong
(+/- .40 to .69) positive and negative relationships. The Cronbach’s alphas of the variables in this study
varied from excellent to acceptable.
Measurement model
To investigate the measurement model and the relations between the variables we initially conducted
a confirmatory factor analysis of the latent variables. None of the error variances in the model was allowed
to correlate. The model had good fit to data (χ2 (545, N = 382) = 1009.746, p < .001, CMIN/DF =
1.853, RMSEA = 0.047, IFI = 0.943, TLI = 0.937, and CFI = 0.943), and all regression weights in the
model were significant at p < .001. Supporting the zero-order correlations (see Table 1) the correlations
between the latent variables varied from low to moderate/strong (see Table 2). The result from the CFA
supports the conceptualization of six separate but low to moderately correlated constructs.

Frode Moen, Roger A. Federici, Frank Abrahamsen
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Table 2. Correlations between the latent variables in the model
Structural model
We tested the theoretical model displayed in Figure 1 by means of structural equation modeling. In
the model specification, none of the error variances were allowed to correlate. The final model had
acceptable fit to the data (χ2 (551, N = 382) = 1028.432, p < .001, CMIN/DF = 1.866, RMSEA = 0.048,
IFI = 0.941, TLI = 0.936, and CFI = 0.941). Estimates of the standardized regression weights and the
squared multiple correlations are shown in Figure 2, whereas unstandardized regressions weights, standard
errors, total effects, and indirect effects are presented in Table 3. The initial analysis revealed that some of
the regression weights between the latent variables were not significant at p < .05. The non-significant
regression weights are not included in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Structural model of the relations between the constructs.

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Table 3. Summary of SEM analysis of the theoretical model
Discussion
One purpose of the present study was to investigate the potential relationships between athlete
burnout and mindfulness, stress and performance in school and sport. In general our hypotheses were
supported, in that stress was positively related to burnout and negatively to the performance variables. One
of the most interesting findings was that mindfulness was related with both athletic and academic
performance. The fact that mindfulness may improve athletic performance is according to Thompson et al.
(2011) supported by the theoretical overlap between mindfulness and “flow” (Gardner& Moore, 2004;
Kaufman et al., 2009; Kee & Wang, 2008). Flow can be seen as a state of mind or consciousness in
which a person is completely absorbed in his or her actions and experiences a unity of body and mind
(Csikszentmihalyi, 1990) that facilitates peak performance (Jackson & Csikszentmihalyi, 1999; Jackson &
Eklund, 2002).
There may also be two other reasons for the relationship between mindfulness and performance. The

Frode Moen, Roger A. Federici, Frank Abrahamsen
14
first one, may be interpreted in light of attentional control theory (ACT; (Eysenck, et al., 2007), as stress
and performance anxiety could shift the attentional resources, making it harder to use top-down processing.
ACT highlights that when anxious, individuals attention resources shift from a state were top-down (goal
driven) attention is given less resources on behalf of bottom-up processing (instinct driven). Thus,
mindfulness may help the athlete accept the stress and by that free resources from ruminating about the
stress consequences. The other explanation might come from the Cognitive Activation Theory of Stress
(Ursin & Eriksen, 2004), as mindfulness may help the athlete to feel they can control the stress (having a
positive outcome expectancy) and by that react better to the stress experiences. The fact that mindfulness
was negatively related with stress (as a mediator for performance) adds to these suppositions. Similarly,
relaxation, confidence, high energy, present-centered focus, extraordinary awareness, feeling in control, and
detachment from distractions are among the major factors that have been identified previously (e.g., Cohn,
1991; Garfield & Bennett, 1984). Future research should try to replicate the present findings, and try to see
what theory is better at predicting the relationship between mindfulness and performance.
As mentioned, mindfulness was related negatively with stress, which is an important finding by
itself. Mindfulness was also negatively related with burnout. Thus, in the present study mindfulness was
related both directly (and positively) with performance (school and sport) and negatively with stress and
burnout. Stress was related to burnout positively and also acted as a mediator between mindfulness and
burnout. In light with previous studies (e.g., Raedeke & Smith, 2004), the present study therefore give
credence to the importance to examine stress as part of a burnout cycle. The present study also underscores
the potential positive effects of mindfulness on stress and burnout. This finding can be explained by the
CATS model, which claims that mindfulness practice may provide an opportunity for athletes to enhance
concentration and non-reactivity, because the emotional experience of stressful events are not denied during
the practice, but are more acutely perceived, while the attention remain on the task at hand (Marks, 2008).
Enhancement of sustained attention and inhibition of alternatives reduces rumination and facilitates shift of
attentional focus to desired targets and impede elaboration of unpleasant thoughts and feelings as a
consequence (Marks, 2008).
The findings are promising in terms of utilizing mindfulness as a sport psychology intervention, and
future studies should try to examine potential intervention effects.
Although the present study is cross-sectional it gives many important implications, both for research
and for applied sport psychology. Jouper and Gustafsson (2013) found that mindfulness practice was a
potential tool to aid athletes who suffered from burnout to recover. As mentioned previously, possible
unfulfilled expectations in school or sports could develop excessive stress that lads to burnout (Goodger, et

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15
al., 2007; Gould & Dieffenbach, 2002; Gustafsson, et al., 2007). Even though cause and effect cannot be
inferred from the present findings, it still seems that being mindful can be helpful also preventing excessive
stress and avoid burnout from occurring, which is in line with the reasoning in CATS (Ursin & Eriksen,
2004). In order to substantiate the present findings, future studies may utilize different methods (longitudinal
and/or interventions) and try to replicate the present study with different samples. Meanwhile, it seems that
helping school athletes to be mindful may be an important applied avenue to reduce the effects of stress
by itself.
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