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Academic Stress, Digital Strain, and Athlete Burnout Among Female Collegiate Basketball Players: A PLS-SEM and fsQCA Study

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Digital communication technologies expose student-athletes to implicit digital demands, yet their configurational impact alongside traditional stressors on burnout remains underexplored. Grounded in the JD-R model and Stress and Coping theory, this dual-method quantitative study (PLS-SEM and fsQCA) sampled female basketball players from the Chinese University Basketball Association League (CUBAL) to investigate how academic stress and digital strain associate with athlete burnout. PLS-SEM revealed that the composite construct of digital strain (integrating telepressure and technostress) acts as a significant indirect pathway linking academic stress and athlete burnout. Furthermore, fsQCA demonstrated that no single condition is necessary for high burnout; rather, specific combinations—such as high academic stress coupled with high techno-overload, or a purely “digital saturation” state—constitute configurations sufficiently associated with high burnout within this calibrated sample. Conversely, configurations associated with non-high burnout are asymmetrical, primarily relying on the concurrent absence of telepressure and techno-overload. Under the digital management paradigm, implicit digital strain acts as a critical proximal conduit for psychological exhaustion. The manifestation of high and non-high burnout is asymmetrical, depending on complex configurations of structural academic demands and digital expectations.

Source: Behavioral Sciences

DOI: 10.3390/bs16101889

Authors: Yuhang Lei, Wei Li, Li Cai

Institutions: Nanjing Normal University, Huaqiao University

Language: English

Topic: Stress and Burnout Research

Subfield: Social Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,654