The role of culture in burnout among sport officials: A self-determination perspective

Although the antecedents and consequences of burnout among athletes and coaches have been clearly documented, the burnout process is not well understood. One theory that can be used to examine burnout is the self-determination theory (SDT). SDT theorizes that the fulfilment of psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness are essential for athlete well-being and correlate negatively with burnout. Nevertheless, the relationship between basic needs satisfaction (BNS) for relatedness and athlete burnout have not been clearly established. Furthermore, the majority of the research on burnout in sport and SDT has overlooked culture as a possible moderating factor in the relationships between psychological needs, motivation, and burnout. There is also limited research to facilitate the understanding of burnout among sport officials. Using SDT as a theoretical framework, the aim of this study was to examine the role of culture in burnout among sport officials. A total of 50 umpires primarily from Australia and Singapore were recruited to complete a multi-sectional questionnaire and 17 umpires were interviewed using semi-structured interviews. Results indicated cultural differences in basic needs satisfaction, types of motivation, and symptoms of burnout. BNS for competence was negatively associated with all measures of burnout and positively correlated with overall levels of self-determined motivation. Overall burnout was correlated only to some types of motivation. Motivation was not found to mediate the relationship between BNS and burnout, but culture was had a marginal moderation effect in the relationship between BNS for relatedness and overall levels of self-determined motivation. Qualitative analysis found that umpiring experiences included training, working with mentors, rewarding or positive experiences, frustrating or negative experiences, reasons and motivations for umpiring, and factors contributing to burnout or dropout. Research findings, limitations, and implications of the research are discussed.