Linking perfectionism with moral behaviours in sport: the mediating role of burnout and moral disengagement

Stanger, Nick, Jowett, Gareth, Kaiseler, Mariana ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7931-4584 and Williams, Toni (2024) Linking perfectionism with moral behaviours in sport: the mediating role of burnout and moral disengagement. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport. ISSN 0270-1367

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Abstract

Purpose: Research has identified a range of intrapersonal variables associated with moral behaviours in sport. However, research investigating how perfectionism and burnout are associated with prosocial and antisocial behaviour toward teammates and opponents in sport has received scant attention. In the present study, we addressed this issue by examining whether perfectionism was associated with prosocial and antisocial behaviour in sport directly and indirectly via burnout and moral disengagement. Method: A total of 312 team sport players completed validated measures for each variable. Results: Path analyses revealed that perfectionistic concerns had a negative relationship with prosocial behaviour toward teammates, and an indirect positive association with antisocial behaviour toward both teammates and opponents via being positively associated with burnout, which in turn, was positively associated with moral disengagement. In contrast, perfectionistic strivings had a positive association with prosocial behaviour toward teammates, and an indirect positive association with antisocial behaviour toward teammates and opponents via moral disengagement. Conclusion: Our findings offer new insights about how perfectionism and burnout are associated with prosocial and antisocial behaviour in sport as well as highlight the need to consider perfectionistic tendencies and approaches to help reduce burnout and moral disengagement in the regulation of antisocial behaviour in sport.