A sports psychologist investigated the relationship between academy youth athletes’ perceived parental pressure and their level of athletic burnout. They recruited a self-selected sample of 45 tennis players aged 12 to 14.

Each participant performed a high-intensity physical agility test to exhaustion while their parents observed and recorded their performance from the sidelines. Immediately after, the participants completed a detailed self-report questionnaire containing 25 items about their relationship with their parents, focusing on experiences of criticism, fear of failure, and parental disappointment.