F.F. Kostov¹
Dr.Hab., Professor G.N. Ponomarev¹
Dr.Hab., Professor V.F. Kostyuchenko^2
1Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia, St. Petersburg
²Lesgaft National State University of Physical Education, Sport and Health, St. Petersburg

Keywords: emotional burnout, rhythmic gymnastics, coach.

Background. Emotional burnout defined as a result of multiannual job-related stressors and interpersonal tensions, is also often referred to as the occupational burnout [3, 4]. Emotional burnout and related issues has long been subject for research in sport psychology although such studies are traditionally focused on athletes rather than coaches [2, 5], with a special priority to the emotional burnout forecast, diagnostics, control and mitigation/ prevention issues.

Objective of the study was to profile and analyze the emotional burnout in the national rhythmic gymnastics coaching community.

Methods and structure of the study. We used for the purposes of the study the following methods: WAM (wellbeing, activity, mood) self-test system adapted by V.A. Doskin et al.; Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) adapted by N.E. Vodopyanova [1]; and our own Emotional Burnout Profiling Questionnaire Survey in application to the rhythmic gymnastics coaches. We sampled for the survey (run in February 2020) rhythmic gymnastics coaches from St. Petersburg and Penza cities (n=28, with 23 covered by every questionnaire survey method) and split up the sample into Group 1 (n=10) and Group 2 (n=13) with the coaching experiences under and over 10 years, respectively.

Results and discussion. WAM test rated the Wellbeing and Mood of the sample below 4 points – indicative of a certain psychological stress; and Activity above 4 points albeit still below the 5 to 5.5 point norm, with the intergroup differences found insignificant (p> 0.05).

The MBI tests rated both groups moderate on the Emotional Exhaustion and Depersonalization scales and low on the Professional Success scale – that is indicative of a moderate emotional burnout; with a statistically significant intergroup difference (p <0.05) detected only on the Emotional Exhaustion scale: see Table 1 hereunder.

Table 1. Group WAM and MBI test data

.Figure 1. Weekly workload analysis of the rhythmic gymnastics coaching sample, n=28

Furthermore, the questionnaire survey found only 29% having extra sources of income and, therefore, having to work overtime.

Figure 2. Competitions per year reported by the sample, n=28

46% of the sample reported their trainees competing 10-plus times per year (Figure 2) – that means that they are exposed to competitive stressors virtually every month, if the precompetitive summer training cycles are taken into account. No wonder that the competitive stressors undermine their mental health standards sooner or later.

Note that the present rules and traditions require from the rhythmic gymnastics coaches to provide a refereeing service in the competitions or delegate their refereeing authorities, otherwise they are fined. For the refereeing service, the coaches are expected to obtain and renew the relevant certificates at their own financial and time costs. Thus the Class II referees need to be recertified  at least once a year due to the multiple updates to the rhythmic gymnastics rules of refereeing in the Russian Federation. It is not unusual for the modern rhythmic gymnastics competitions to last very long. Thus 32% of the sample reported the competitions averaging 6-10 hours, and 36% reported 10-plus hours of refereeing service on the competitive days. Moreover, the refereeing stressors are further complicated by the need to coach own trainees during the events. Such draining, stressful and highly emotional work days cannot but expose the coaches to a wide range of physical, mental and physiological disorders.

The coaching service is further stressed by the potential tension with the trainees’ families. The family contacts and climate are known to heavily influence the modern rhythmic gymnastics coaching service and competitive progresses of the trainees, despite the fact that they remain invisible and uncontrolled by the training and competitive systems. The survey found 54% reporting some kind of pressure from the families; 61% being in conflicts with the families; and 79% complaining that families use to bother them in non-business time.

Conclusion. The study found the rhythmic gymnastics coaches highly exposed to many emotional burnout triggers including not only the occupational ones but also those related to communication with the trainees’ families including family pressures in non-business hours. These and other emotional burnout triggers were found to result in early emotional burnouts in the rhythmic gymnastics coaching community with many relevant negative consequences including professional regresses.

References

1. Vodopyanova N.E., Starchenkova E.S. Burnout syndrome: diagnosis and prevention. St. Petersburg: Piter publ., 2008. 336 p.
2. Kostov F.F., Ponomarev G.N., Rodichkin P.V. Health self-rating process correction model to prevent reactive asthenia in 13-15 year-old athletes. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury , 2018. No. 8. pp. 9-11.
3. Olshanskaya S.A., Karaulova S.N. Features of display of emotional burnout in football coaches. Vestnik Orenburgskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. 2020. No. 1. pp. 87-93.
4. Polyakova T.A., Yudina R.N. Manifestation of emotional burnout syndrome in coach activities. Vestnik PGGPU. Ser. No. 1. Psikhologicheskie i pedagogicheskie nauki. 2014. No.1. pp. 220-226.
5. Schaffran P., Kleinert J., Altfeld S., Zepp C., Kallus K.W., Kell M. Earlymann Risk Detection of Burnout: Development of the Burnout Prevention Questionnaire for Coaches. Frontiers in Psychology. 2019. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00714

Corresponding author: Fedya1990@list.ru

Abstract

Objective of the study was to profile and analyze the emotional burnout in the national rhythmic gymnastics coaching community.

Methods and structure of the study. We used for the purposes of the study the following methods: WAM (wellbeing, activity, mood) self-test system adapted by V.A. Doskin et al.; Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) adapted by N.E. Vodopyanova [1]; and our own Emotional Burnout Profiling Questionnaire Survey in application to the rhythmic gymnastics coaches. We sampled for the survey (run in February 2020) rhythmic gymnastics coaches from St. Petersburg and Penza cities (n=28, with 23 covered by every questionnaire survey method) and split up the sample into Group 1 (n=10) and Group 2 (n=13) with the coaching experiences under and over 10 years, respectively.

Results of the study and conclusions. The study found the rhythmic gymnastics coaches highly exposed to many emotional burnout triggers including not only the occupational ones but also those related to communication with the trainees’ families including family pressures in non-business hours. These and other emotional burnout triggers were found to result in early emotional burnouts in the rhythmic gymnastics coaching community with many relevant negative consequences including professional regresses.