Analysis of the psychometric properties of the Athlete Burnout Questionnaire (ABQ) in Mexican athletes

Abstract

The Athlete Burnout Questionnaire (ABQ) has become one of the most used tools to assess burnout in sport contexts. Despite a significant increase in research in this field, the literature has shown that there are no papers which provide psychometric data of the ABQ using a Mexican sample. Hence the objective of the present study was to analyze the psychometric properties of the Athlete Burnout Questionnaire of Mexican athletes. Data analysis was obtained using two studies. The first study consisted of 464 young athletes between 13 and 18 years old (M = 14.85, SD = 1.45). The results of the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) showed acceptable fit indices (chi 2 = 176.7; chi 2/gl = 2.18; p < .01; TLI = .93, IFI = .95, CFI = .95 y RMSEA = .05) Acceptable results of factorial loads were also found for the original trifactorial questionnaire. A sample of 1009 Mexican athletes between 12 and 39 years of age (M = 17.28, SD = 2.98) were used for the second study. The results of the CFA found sufficient evidence for the construct validity (chi 2 = 419.5; chi 2/gl = 5.59; p < .01; TLI = .94, IFI = .96, CFI = .96 and RMSEA = .07). The results in the analysis of correlation between the Athlete Burnout Questionnaire (ABQ) and the Athlete Engagement questionnaire (AEQ) can be considered as evidence of the discriminant validity. In regard to reliability, acceptable results were observed in internal consistency in both phases of the study, concluding that the ABQ is a useful instrument to evaluate burnout in Mexican athletes.