The relationship between resilience and burnout in elite athletes: the mediating role of coping strategies and the moderating role of psychosocial resources

OBJECTIVE: Guided by the unifying model of the stress process, this study examines the impact of resilience on athlete burnout and its underlying mechanisms. METHODS: A sample of 756 elite athletes was surveyed using the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, Athlete Burnout Questionnaire, Modified COPE, and Psychosocial Resources Scale. Data were processed and analyzed using SPSS 27.0 and AMOS 27.0. RESULTS: (1) After controlling for gender and age, resilience was significantly negatively associated with athlete burnout; (2) Both problem-focused and avoidance-focused coping strategies partially mediated the relationship between resilience and athlete burnout; (3) Psychosocial resources moderated the relationship between coping strategies and athlete burnout in the context of resilience. CONCLUSIONS: Resilience is a crucial proximal factor in athlete burnout, with coping strategies partially mediating their relationship. Psychosocial resources play a protective role in mitigating burnout risk. However, the cross-sectional design limits the ability to fully infer causal relationships between variables; future research is encouraged to adopt experimental or longitudinal designs to further examine the rationality and scientificity of the proposed hypotheses.