Star personalities on the winners' podium: Exploring dysfunctional personalities in elite athletes

This study explores elite athletes' dysfunctional personality tendencies (DPTs), defined as latent dispositions triggered under conditions of stress, fatigue, or when external control mechanisms are not in place. They form a risk factor for impaired functioning in high-performance sports environments. A group of athletes composed of youth elite ( N = 148), elite ( N = 217) and super elite athletes ( N = 34) were administered TD-12, a questionnaire assessing 12 DPTs. Comparisons with the general population ( N = 108) showed higher scores for elite athletes on Self-centered, Expressive, Distant and Defiant, and lower scores on Vigilant and Cautious. For athletes, the highest averages were observed for Meticulous and Self-centered, whereas Concerned obtained the lowest. Women athletes had significantly higher scores on Cautious, Reliant, Meticulous, and Eccentric, while men scored significantly higher on Distant, Defiant, Self-centered and Expressive. There was no sport performance-level effect, but team sports' athletes had higher scores for Vigilant, Defiant and Self-centered. Using a cut-off of M + 1SD, 28% of athletes were flagged for none of the 12 DPTs, 26% as at risk for one DPT, 45.8% for two or more DPTs, with 12% as at risk for five or more DPTs. In addition, when an individual is flagged for a DPT, they are usually flagged for additional DPTs. Finally, we observed that the most frequent associations of DPTs corresponded to three personality signatures, i.e., negativism, withdrawal and affected. We discuss how DPTs can be assessed and used in the context of high-performance sporting environments. • DPTs are triggered under conditions of stress, fatigue, or in the absence of external control mechanisms • Athletes are more Self-centered, Expressive, Distant and Defiant, and less Vigilant and Cautious, than the general population • 72 % of our sample were at risk for one or more DPTs with three prominent signatures (negativism, withdrawal and affected)