Passion Profiles and Multidimensional Well-Being in Marathon Runners

The dualistic model of passion has been linked to several psychological constructs related to well-being in runners. Evidence suggests that investigating the interaction of passion subtypes might increase our understanding of the relationship between passion and indices of well-being. This study used both person- and variable-centered analyses to investigate the relationship between passion, multidimensional well-being, and psychological distress in 219 adult marathon runners. We performed a canonical correlation multivariate analysis to determine the relationship between passion types and psychological outcomes, as well as a multivariate analysis of variance to compare passion sub-types to indices of well-being. Results indicated that harmonious passion was significantly and positively related to multidimensional well-being and negatively related to psychological distress, while obsessive passion was significantly and positively related to psychological distress. Minor differences in well-being and distress between passion subtype clusters were also noted. A discussion of these findings includes the potential benefit of considering the harmonious and obsessive passion subtype interaction when examining these measures of well-being in marathon runners. Keywords: passion; well-being; cluster analysis; marathon running; psychological distress
Many anecdotes exist that suggest following one's passion will reap benefits and improve a person's quality of life. This idea that passion is associated with positive outcomes has become more [...]