Introduction: Feeling passionate about sport may help athletes cope with the demands of excessive training needed for a number of years to become successful at the elite level. Passion is thereby seen as a strong motivational force towards an attractive activity, possibly to the extent that it becomes an integral part of the athlete`s identity (Vallerand et al., 2003). The concept of passion has been divided into two forms: harmonious and obsessive. Although feeling passionate about sport seems important from a motivational perspective, it may increase the risk for burnout, which is a negative consequence blamed partly on too much training and inadequate recovery (Gustafsson et al., 2008). The question voiced in this study is whether the risk for burnout is equally between harmoniously and obsessively passionate athletes. Methods: Participants were 94 female and 164 male competitive athletes from 21 sports. Passion was measured with the Passion scale (Vallerand et al. 2003) and burnout with the Athlete Burnout Questionnaire (Raedeke & Smith, 2001). A one-way MANOVA was performed to investigate potential differences between athletes categorized according to type of passion (i.e., Harmonious vs. Obsessive) in the level of burnout. Results: A significant main multivariate effect was found: F(7, 250) = 4.85, p < .0001. Follow-up analyses, using a Bonferroni adjusted alpha level of .007, showed significantly higher burnout scores in the Obsessive passion group than in the Harmonious group: Emotional/ physical exhaustion, F(1, 256) = 9.90, p = .002; Reduced sense of accomplishment, F(1, 256) = 18.39, p < .001; and Devaluation of sport participation, F(1, 256) = 14.12, p < .001. Discussion: These findings strengthen the assumption that even though passion may indeed be a vital part of elite sport; athletes scoring high on obsessive passion may be at greater risk for developing burnout than more harmoniously passionate athletes. One possible explanation is that obsessive passion induces a more rigid form of persistence (Vallerand et al., 2003). Interpreted positively, persistence may increase the athletes` chance of reaching their full potential during the
© Copyright 2009 14th annual Congress of the European College of Sport Science, Oslo/Norway, June 24-27, 2009, Book of Abstracts. Published by The Norwegian School of Sport Sciences. All rights reserved.