Otokratik Antrenör Liderlik Tarzı ile Tükenmişlik Arasındaki İlişki: Reddedilme Duyarlılığı, Benlik Değeri ve Algılanan Sosyal Desteğin Aracı Rolü

Abstract

The primary aim of this study was to determine how an autocratic coaching leadership style influences burnout in adolescent athletes and to evaluate the mediating roles of rejection sensitivity, self-esteem, and perceived social support in this relationship. The sample comprised 350 licensed adolescent athletes aged 14 to 17 who were actively involved in sports. Data were collected using five psychometric instruments: The Leadership Scale for Sport, the Athlete Burnout Questionnaire, the Children’s Rejection Sensitivity Questionnaire, the Rosenberg SelfEsteem Scale, and the Perceived Social Support in Teams Scale. In the first phase, Pearson’s product-moment correlation analysis was conducted to examine the relationships among the study variables. Results indicated that an autocratic leadership style was positively and significantly associated with athlete burnout. In the second phase, mediation analyses were performed using Hayes’s (2013) PROCESS macro Model 4 to assess whether rejection sensitivity (both anxious expectation and angry expectation dimensions), self-esteem, and perceived social support mediated the effect of autocratic leadership on burnout. These analyses revealed that both rejection sensitivity and low self-esteem functioned as significant mediators between autocratic leadership and burnout, whereas perceived social support acted protectively by attenuating this relationship. The findings suggest that an autocratic coaching approach may constitute a risk factor for the psychological well-being of adolescent athletes, and that individual (rejection sensitivity and self-esteem) and environmental (social support) variables can either exacerbate or buffer this effect. Accordingly, it is recommended that leadership practices in sports not only emphasize performance but also address athletes’ psychological processes. Specifically, coach education programs should be restructured to incorporate the psychological consequences of different leadership styles, psychological support services for adolescent athletes should be expanded, and team-level social support systems should be strengthened.