Canadian Academy Discover, Publish, Thrive
This study aims to explore the relationship between perfectionism, burnout, moral disengagement, and moral behaviors in sport , an area which has been under-researched despite its significance in understanding prosocial and antisocial behaviors towards teammates and opponents.
Sport provides a platform where athletes can exhibit morally relevant behaviors, including prosocial actions aimed at benefiting others and antisocial actions intended to harm them. Researchers investigate factors influencing these behaviors, such as personality traits like perfectionism, due to their potential impact on both athletes’ welfare and sporting performance, aiming to promote prosocial behavior and deter antisocial conduct in sports contexts.
Perfectionism is a complex trait characterized by excessively high standards and self-critical evaluations. Despite various models, two main dimensions consistently emerge: perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns. Strivings involve self-imposed high standards, while concerns involve external standards and harsh evaluations. Perfectionistic concerns are linked to negative outcomes like burnout, while strivings show mixed associations. In sports, perfectionism can lead to both prosocial and antisocial behaviors. Studies suggest that concerns are more strongly associated with antisocial behavior due to the pressure of external standards. However, research on how perfectionism relates to both prosocial and antisocial behaviors, and the mediating factors like burnout and moral disengagement, is limited. Further exploration of these associations is needed in the sports context.
Athlete burnout, characterized by diminished athletic achievement, emotional exhaustion, and devaluation of sports participation, can lead to depression, stress, and decreased prosocial behavior. Perfectionism, particularly perfectionistic concerns, is linked to athlete burnout, while perfectionistic strivings show a negative or unrelated association. However, the relationship between perfectionism, burnout, and moral behaviors like prosocial and antisocial actions in sports remains unexplored. Further research is needed to understand how these factors intersect and influence athlete behavior.
Moral disengagement, a key concept in Bandura’s social cognitive theory, explains how individuals regulate their behavior in relation to moral standards. Despite positive alignment with moral standards leading to positive self-evaluations, people may still engage in harmful actions. Bandura identified eight mechanisms of moral disengagement, including moral justification and displacement of responsibility, which justify transgressive behavior without eliciting typical negative self-sanctions. Studies have consistently found positive links between moral disengagement and antisocial behavior towards opponents, with weaker associations towards teammates. Additionally, perfectionism, particularly perfectionistic concerns, may exacerbate moral disengagement, leading to increased antisocial behavior. Burnout, often associated with perfectionism, could further contribute to moral disengagement, potentially explaining the relationship between perfectionism and prosocial/antisocial behaviors. However, further research is needed to fully understand these dynamics and their implications.
Research on perfectionism and its effects on behavior in sports has mainly focused on outcomes, neglecting the relationship with prosocial and antisocial behaviors. Burnout and moral disengagement may act as mediators between perfectionism and moral behaviors in sports, yet their interplay remains unexplored. This study aims to investigate how perfectionistic strivings and concerns relate to prosocial and antisocial behavior in sports directly and indirectly through burnout and moral disengagement. It is hypothesized that perfectionistic concerns would correlate positively with antisocial and negatively with prosocial behaviors, mediated by burnout and moral disengagement, while perfectionistic strivings would show inverse or negligible associations. Additionally, moral disengagement is expected to positively correlate with antisocial behavior and negatively with prosocial behavior.
This study aimed to investigate how perfectionistic tendencies relate to prosocial and antisocial behaviors in sports through burnout and moral disengagement. It found that perfectionistic concerns were directly linked to less prosocial behavior towards teammates, while perfectionistic strivings were linked to more prosocial behavior. Both perfectionistic concerns and strivings indirectly correlated with antisocial behaviors through burnout and moral disengagement. These results suggest that perfectionistic concerns tend to lead to more negative outcomes, while perfectionistic strivings may also indirectly contribute to antisocial behaviors via moral disengagement.
Perfectionistic concerns were found to be negatively associated with prosocial behavior towards teammates, consistent with prior studies linking perfectionistic concerns to reduced prosocial behaviors in sports and education. This may be attributed to the perceived threat of negative evaluation from teammates, discouraging assistance to avoid undermining one’s pursuit of perfection. Additionally, perfectionistic concerns were associated with increased engagement in antisocial behaviors towards teammates and opponents, mediated by burnout and moral disengagement. Burnout was inversely related to prosocial behavior towards teammates, but this association weakened when controlling for perfectionism. Moreover, burnout was positively linked to moral disengagement and indirectly associated with antisocial behaviors towards teammates and opponents. Perfectionistic strivings, however, showed a positive association with prosocial behavior towards teammates, aligning with previous research suggesting a drive towards meeting personal standards could foster supportive behaviors. Yet, perfectionistic strivings also correlated positively with moral disengagement and indirectly with antisocial behaviors. These mixed findings highlight that while perfectionistic strivings may mitigate burnout and promote prosocial behaviors, they can also contribute to moral disengagement and antisocial behaviors, akin to perfectionistic concerns, albeit to a lesser extent. Overall, both dimensions of perfectionism may lead to “dark strivings,” emphasizing the need for further exploration into the factors influencing these behaviors.
The current research suggests practical implications for managing perfectionism and reducing antisocial behaviors among athletes. Coaches and sport practitioners should assess and address perfectionistic tendencies in athletes by creating supportive environments and setting realistic expectations. Empowering athletes to set their own goals and standards within an autonomy-supportive climate can mitigate perfectionism. Burnout, correlated with decreased prosocial behavior and increased moral disengagement, can be tackled through multi-level interventions addressing individual needs and sport structure, focusing on stress reduction and enhancing social and coping resources. Implementing autonomy-supportive motivational climates and fostering socially supportive environments may effectively buffer against burnout, emphasizing the importance of interventions to enhance social support and coping resources among athletes and coaches.
In summary, this study examined how perfectionism relates to prosocial and antisocial behaviors in sports through burnout and moral disengagement. Perfectionistic concerns were associated with increased antisocial behaviors via higher burnout and moral disengagement, while perfectionistic strivings showed some positive outcomes but also indirect links to antisocial behaviors through moral disengagement. Addressing perfectionistic tendencies, particularly concerns, could aid in reducing burnout, moral disengagement, and antisocial behaviors in sports.
Source:
Nicholas Stanger, Gareth E. Jowett, Mariana Kaiseler & Toni L. Williams (2024) Linking Perfectionism with Moral Behaviors in Sport: The Mediating Role of Burnout and Moral Disengagement, Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, DOI: 10.1080/02701367.2023.2294096