The focus on mental health of collegiate athletes has seen tremendous growth in recent decades primarily due to the awareness of its effects on the mental, physical, social and performance in the relevant sports. Various professionals in the field of sports psychology and scholarly researchers have published numerous articles on the topic at hand. While various studies display several distinct features, their findings show multiple similarities including the argument that student athletes are more susceptible to stress as compared to their non-athlete counterparts. A 2O14 NCAA report prepared Davoren and Hwang, thirty percent of the 195,000 college students interviewed in the study admitted to being depressed within the last year while fifty percent of them reported that they had been victims of anxiety within the same period (1). The severity of mental issues coupled with the desired address the mental health of collegiate athletes and increasing their overall performance necessitates an analysis of the said population's experiences, stressors, and possible mitigation strategies. This paper provides a synthesis of various scholarly sources addressing the sources of stress, mental hurdles, coping mechanisms of student athletes and therapeutic tools that can be utilized by the athletes and the educational institutions to deal with their mental health.
Stress and Stressors among Student Athletes
Student athletes face more stress than the rest of the student population. This postulation is supported by both the study of Wilson and Pritchard (1) and cites the study of Lazarus and Folkman (1996) that defines stress as the negative feelings among persons unable to cope with the demands and expectations of the environment around them (1). The American Psychology Association (APA) defines stress as uncomfortable emotional experience followed by predictable changes in one’s biochemical structure, physiology, and behavior (1). APA argues that sometimes stress may have a positive influence on person’s life by providing a need “drive and energy” to accomplish various tasks. However, its primarily associated with negative impact on the physical, emotional and psychological well-being of individuals. This includes anxiety, sleep disorders, poor judgment, social dissociation and in some cases suicidal thoughts. APA also reports that acute stress is positively correlated to decline in a person’s immunity and others biotic systems including cardiovascular, neuroendocrine and central nervous systems and susceptibility to severe illness such as heart disease, obesity, and depression. It is evident that the information sources support the argument that mental health is a significant part of the college life especially for students including student athletes.
There are many stressors in the life of a student athlete. An analysis of Flanagan (2014) and Wilson and Pritchard (2014) reveals multiple unique sources of stress for student athletes. Flanagan’s article on the Atlantic lists injuries as a critical source of stress for collegiate athletes. The author tells the story of Katy MacCafferty, an athlete at Georgetown who participated in cross-country and track events for her college. Her injury and subsequent extend periods away from sports and in rehabilitation programs resulted to mental health issues especially stemming from the loss of identity as an athlete, feeling of seclusion from her teammates and decline in confidence. Another stressor cited by the article is the Darwinian culture adopted colleges institutions where teams utilize the attrition model. Collegiate athletes are forced to over practice by a sports program that is purely production based and in cases of injuries or decline in individual performance, they are replaced by a younger, energetic group. This phenomenon is made worse by the immense pressure on coaches to win championship thus making them prioritize player performance over their mental wellbeing. Also, shock stemming from the level of competition in the college is key stressor for student athletes. They realize that every player in the college was outstanding in high school, an aspect that imparts psychological pressure on them. Other sources of stress include homesickness and realization on the difficulty of turning into a professional athlete, a concept that is heavily reliant on the coach. Flanagan states that only three percent of the over 450,000 college athletes become professional athletes.
A comparison of the sources of stress among collegiate sportspersons vs. non-student athletes is provided the Wilson and Pritchard’s 2014 study. According to the study, student athletes experience stress from relationships more as compared to non-student athletes. This stressor is initiated by increased responsibilities linked to sports engagements. Physical and mental health is another stressing issues that is prevalent among collegiate athletes especially with regards to lack of sleep due to time constraints. Body satisfaction is another stressor that affects student athletes more than it affects the non-athletic fraternity. Student athletes develop mental health issues from dissatisfaction with their physical appearance. This finding is consistent with Flanagan’s argument that eating disorders are common among leanness oriented sports fields such as gymnastics and athletics. Wilson and Pritchard’s article, however, does not find a significant difference between student athletes and the non-athletes on general collegiate stressors such as finances, social life, and academics.
Mental health hurdles among collegiate athletes
In spite of the many stressors positively correlated to the life of the student athletes and the adverse effects of stress on their mental, physical and emotional wellbeing, collegiate athletes show various mental struggles in accepting their conditions and seeking help. The first significant hurdle is college policies and fear of losing their student status. A 2014 article by Wilson that appeared on The Chronicle of Higher Education details the story of a college student that committed suicide after being sent home by his college to seek professional help. It also reports the story of a Yale undergraduate student who committed suicide in fear of never being re-admitted to the institution in case she took time off to deal with her mental issues. It is evident that college policies or lack thereof regarding mental health among students become a frustrating factor. This is particularly worse for student athletes who may fail to reveal their mental struggles due to the fear of losing their position at the institution or on the team.
Another mental hurdle is fear of stigmatization and reputational loss. Flanagan’s article sites most student athletes are hesitant to seek help in dealing with their mental health issues partly die the perception that they will lose their identity as fearless competitors. The author further links the hesitation to the student athlete’s perception that their mental health issues stem from sports and can thus be seldom understood by people outside the sports world. This argument is consistent with the findings of a 2012 survey by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) that attributed the reluctance to seek help among college student to the fear of stigmatization (11). This fear of victimization is closely related to another NAMI finding linking the reluctance to confidentiality issues. Collegiate athletes fearing stigmatization may fail to seek help due to the perceived absence of confidentiality in the school mental health systems. Lack of awareness of mental health issues and college support systems is also a primary hindrance to the collegiate athlete's attempts to seek help on mental issues. Busy schedule and increased practice time, which can extend up to 32 hours according to Flanagan (4) also reduced the availability of social support networks for student athletes dealing with mental struggles. The final hurdle is resource unavailability or inadequacy in the tertiary academic institution. One reason for the phenomenon is the existence of only fifty licensed clinical sports psychologist in the entire United States (Flanagan 5). NAMI also weighs into the argument by linking the limited mental health resources in public institutions to small college budgets (9).
Stress management and therapeutic tools for student athletes
Various stress management tools exist that can be availed to persons dealing with mental health issues such as collegiate athletes. APA cites various available tools including physical activity, healthy diet, lifestyle and behavioral changes, therapy, and medication. Counselling and medication for student athletes can be effective as given credence by the story in Flanagan’s article of Jonathan Meldrum, a former college football player who was the beneficiary of the said tools in high school an experienced improvement. The mental struggles resumed after he joined college and stopped the treatment process. The APA articles argue that psychologists can help identify the sources of stress which can substantially benefit athletes experiencing mental struggles.
NAMI suggest various tools that are also applicable to student athletes in academic institutions. First is a well-trained faculty staff. This concept is particularly helpful considering that 83% of academic institution holds the right to refuse to attend to students with issues beyond their staff’s capability (Wilson 3). Other helpful therapeutic systems that can be employed by institutions in handling the mental struggles of student athletes are a peer-run group and peer to peer mentoring (NAMI 14). This concept introduces an element of trust and comfort in the stress management process which is critical for effective communication. NAMI’s article also advocates for mental health awareness during orientation and cites one of the surveys respondents’ suggestion of including a mental health course in the first year of a college education as an awareness program (20). Finally, the college can avail metal health awareness information via the school’s website. Students athletes may benefit substantially from a culture that normalizes mental health struggles via awareness programs and creates comprehensive support structures while availing the various therapeutic tools to aid the college athletes to deal with stress.
In conclusion, mental health is a fundamental aspect of the college life. As elaborated in this paper, student athletes experience more stress as compared to non-student athletes. An analysis of various scholarly sources provided herein reveals various issues regarding stress among student athletes including sources of stress, hurdles by the said student group in managing their mental health and the stress management techniques and therapeutic tools available for the collegiate sportspersons. Stressors include injuries, homesickness, relationship issues, the Darwinian approach to college sports and body satisfaction issues among others. The hurdles that had reluctance in seeking help for mental struggles include college policies, lack of awareness, fear of stigma and reputational loss, and busy schedules among others. The identified tools include a healthy diet, lifestyle and behavioral changes, therapy, and medication. The sources synthesized herein also advocate for a proactive approach by colleges in dealing mental health of their student athletes.
Works Cited
Davoren, Ann Kearns, and Seunghyun Hwang. “Mind, Body, and Sport: Depression and anxiety prevalence in student-athletes. An excerpt from the Sports Science Institute’s guide to understanding and supporting student-athlete mental wellness.” NCAA, Sports Science Department. 2014. http://www.ncaa.org/sport-science-institute/mind-body-and-sport-depression-and-anxiety-prevalence-student-athletes
Flanagan, Linda. “When College Athletes Face Depression.” The Atlantic. 2014. https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/03/when-college-athletes-face-depression/284484/
National Alliance in Mental Illness. College Students Speak: A survey Report on Mental Health. 2012. https://www.nccpsafety.org/resources/library/college-students-speak-a-survey-report-on-mental-health
Understanding Chronic Stress. American Psychological Association. Retrieved May 23, 2018. http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/understanding-chronic-stress.aspx
Wilson, Gregory and Mary Pritchard. “Comparing Sources of Stress in College Student-Athletes and Non-Athletes.” Athletic Insight. 7.1. 2014:1 http://www.athleticinsight.com/Vol7Iss1/StressAthletesNonathletes.htm
Wilson, Robin. “An Epidemic of Anguish.” The Chronicle of Higher Education.
2015.
