Coaches’ Emotional Leadership and Burnout in Adolescent Taekwondo Athletes: The Mediating Role of Exercise Grit

This study examined the structural associations among coaches’ emotional leadership, exercise grit, and athlete burnout in adolescent taekwondo athletes. A total of 504 adolescent athletes (aged 11–19 years) registered with the Korea Taekwondo Association completed measures of perceived coaches’ emotional leadership, exercise grit, and athlete burnout. Emotional leadership and athlete burnout were each modeled as second-order constructs, and exercise grit as a single integrated factor. Structural equation modeling showed a good fit to the data, χ2 = 807.185, CFI = 0.991, RMSEA = 0.018. Coaches’ emotional leadership was positively associated with exercise grit (β = 0.296, p < 0.001) and negatively associated with athlete burnout (β = −0.348, p < 0.001), and exercise grit was negatively associated with athlete burnout (β = −0.461, p < 0.001). The indirect association between emotional leadership and burnout through exercise grit was significant (β = −0.136, 95% CI [−0.187, −0.093]) and accounted for approximately 28% of the total association (β = −0.484). These associations remained virtually unchanged after controlling for gender, age, event type, team type, and competition level. Because the design was cross-sectional, the findings indicate associations rather than causal effects, and longitudinal research is needed to determine whether emotionally competent coaching contributes to lower athlete burnout.