# Transformational Leadership Styles, Adolescent Burnout, and the Mediating Role of Basic Psychological Needs: A Cross-Sectional Study on Family and Sport Contexts

## TL;DR

This study explores how transformational leadership from coaches and parents affects adolescent burnout through the lens of psychological needs in sports and family settings.

## Contribution

The study identifies basic psychological needs as a mediator between transformational leadership and burnout in both sports and family contexts.

## Key findings

- Transformational leadership from coaches and mothers is linked to higher basic psychological needs satisfaction and lower thwarting.
- Basic psychological needs satisfaction and thwarting mediate the relationship between mothers' parenting and burnout.
- Transformational coaching is directly and indirectly linked to player burnout through basic psychological needs thwarting.

## Abstract

The present study examines the relationships between transformational leadership styles (i.e., transformational coaching and transformational parenting), basic psychological needs (BPN) satisfaction and thwarting, and burnout within sports and family settings among a sample of adolescents. Participants were 540 basketball players (184 girls) between 11 and 18 years old, representing five clubs in the province of Valencia, Spain. A non-experimental cross-sectional study was conducted, and structural equation modeling was used to examine the relationships among the study variables. Both coaches’ and mothers’ transformational leadership styles were positively associated with BPN satisfaction and negatively associated with BPN thwarting. Fathers’ transformational parenting was negatively associated with BPN thwarting. BPN satisfaction and thwarting emerge as an indirect mediator between mothers’ transformational parenting and burnout. A direct association of transformational coaching with players’ burnout was supported, as well as being indirectly associated through BPN thwarting. This study suggests that BPN satisfaction and thwarting are the main mechanisms for understanding the development of player burnout. Coaches, within sports settings, and mothers in the family setting, emerge as fundamental figures for understanding the mechanisms of the relationships between transformational coaching and parenting with regard to player burnout.