Introduction: Athlete burnout presents a significant challenge for adolescent athletes, with profound implications for their mental health and career progression. This study employs an emotional perspective to examine the relationships between admiration, positive affect, negative affect, and athlete burnout, aiming to identify effective strategies for mitigating burnout among this population. Methods: The study utilized the "Admiration Scale", the "Positive and Negative Affect Schedule" and the "Athlete Burnout Questionnaire" to collect data. A total of 1,544 adolescent athletes participated in the study. The collected data were analyzed using three parallel mediation models within the Process macro of SPSS software to elucidate the relationship between admiration and each dimension of athlete burnout, as well as to examine the mediating roles of positive affect and negative affect in this relationship. Results: Admiration had a significant negative relationship with athlete burnout. There were significant differences in the reduced sense of achievement and devaluation of sports practice among the adolescent athletes who took different objects as models of admiration. Positive affect and negative affect indirectly associate the relationship between admiration and athlete burnout (physical and emotional exhaustion, reduced sense of achievement, devaluation of sports practice). Furthermore, the mediating effect of positive affect was stronger than that of negative affect in all three models. Conclusions: Admiration may serve a role in managing symptoms of burnout in the adolescent athlete, and that this effect occurs through the effect on positive affect and negative affect.
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