Serious Sport Injury, Motivation and Burnout: Can Self-Determined Motivation Predict Burnout in Elite Handball Players?

In the past 0 years, the amount of research conducted on psychological aspects of sport injury has been increasing. The purpose of this study was to predict the burnout according to the self-determined motivation in Iranian elite handball players before and after the injury. The subjects were 28 injured elite handball players who did not participate in competitions for 4 weeks due to their injuries. Participants completed Sport Motivation Scale (Pelletier et al., 999) and an athletic burnout questionnaire (Raedeke & Smith, 200) at the beginning of the competitive season. Paired-sample t test, Pearson correlation coefficient and Multiple regression test were used to analyze the data (P<0.05). The results demonstrated a significant relationship between motivation and burnout. There was a significant negative relationship between intrinsic motivation (P<0.000, r= -0.870) and extrinsic motivation (P<0.000, r= -0.706) with burnout. Besides, there was a significant positive relationship between amotivation and burnout (P<0.000, r=0.878). Moreover, multiple regression to predict burnout revealed a linear relationship between motivation subscales and burnout (motivation: R2 = 0.86, intrinsic, M: R2=0.757, extrinsic: M: R2=0.499, amotivation: R2=077). Results revealed a relationship between motivation subscales and burnout after sport injuries, i. e. it is possible to predict the athletes’ burnout by the motivation subscales. Therefore, it is critical to pay attention to the role of important motivation subscales in the recovery period and to return to sport and it is useful to pay attention to the athletes’ behaviors and attitudes for their recovery and rehabilitation.