Studies Show College Athletes Have Increased Levels of Behavioral Health Issues, May Affect Performance
College athletes in recent years have shown increased levels of mental health issues. Whether it be stress, depression or anxiety.
“Since the fall of 2020, rates of mental exhaustion, depression, and
anxiety have improved minimally with rates remaining 1.5 to two times higher than reported
before the COVID-19 pandemic,” University of Montana student Abigail M. Sherwood said in a recent study.
University of Montana student Abigail M. Sherwood
“College students are required to manage a variety of stressors related to academic, social, and financial commitments,” Dos Santos said in a recent study. “College itself is an adjustment,” Kent State professor and Director of Counseling Center Jennifer Waugh said.
“Sports take a lot of extra time out of school,” Malone Baseball player Anthony Bartiromo. “Getting a degree and playing a sport is a lot,” High school Soccer and Track athlete Michael Watson said.
“During the offseason I spend about 25 hours a week on baseball,” Bartiromo said. This busy workload may be something these student-athletes have never dealt with before.
“There has been a recently enhanced focus on mental health of college student-athletes,” Sherwood said. However, this might not be enough. It is one thing to recognize a problem, but it is another thing to tackle it.
One problem with stress is you can not be diagnosed with stress. Tests can be done to determine if you are stressed, but these tests are subjective and can not be measured by numbers.
Coaches have oftentimes preached physical health while mental health is pushed to the side. “Coaches averagely preach mental health,” Bartiromo said.
These athletes are put under massive expectations. Demands are placed on these student-athletes including class, homework, keeping a certain gpa, training and games depending on when their season is and a lack of downtime.
“The reality is that excessively high expectations rarely result in high-level performance. When expectations are high, so is the pressure to meet those expectations,” Peak Performance Sports said.
Lofty expectations put on these young adults can negatively affect performance. “Athletes learn to subject themselves to anything that could help them win the most often, but ultimately this kind of behavior puts them in an environment that disempowers athletes and normalizes abuse,” Sherwood said.
University of Montana student Abigail M. Sherwood
“My mental health is more overthinking; I’m afraid to mess up,” Bartiromo said. College-athletes are adapting to new things and are put under pressure by the entire university.
“In a study conducted at Southern Illinois University on 950 NCAA Division I student-athletes, 33.2% experienced symptoms of depression, a rate higher than the general college population,” Sherwood said. “Additionally, 25.7% of NCAA Division I athletes did not know how or where to access mental health
treatment at their university, and 44.5% had not received any mental health education from their
athletic department,” Sherwood said.
University of Montana student Abigail M. Sherwood
Stress may be expected from college-athletes due to their busy schedules. However, depression is a bigger problem.
“Three months after a traumatic injury, one in three people will experience major depression,” Altius Group said. “(College athlete) had an injury once early in their season, and the worries and concerns over getting better, not wanting to take too much medication, how am I gonna get my schoolwork done. All of these things were not easy to navigate,” Waugh said.
“Athletes who miss competition or practice due to their injuries, are all shown to be susceptible to increased depression symptoms,” Sherwood said.
Anxiety is the third of the ‘Big Three’ of mental health issues alongside stress and depression. The American College Health Association (ACHA) conducted a survey with 195,000 participants where 50% felt overwhelming anxiety over the past year.
“A high level of cognitive anxiety will result in low performance levels for athletes, and therefore, poor results. There is a negative, linear relationship between cognitive anxiety and performance,” National Library of Medicine said.
Unfortunately, stress, anxiety and depression are three of the leading causes of suicide.
These mental health struggles appear often at an early age. “Almost three-fourths of those who have been diagnosed with a mental disorder, such as anxiety, mood disorders, etc., have their first onset by age 24,” the NCCA said. “I have seen teammates show increase levels of stress,” Watson said.
We may never be able to totally get rid of these struggles, but there are ways to prevent them. There is no one way that can cure everything, but precautions can be taken. Social media, trauma, abuse, drugs, alcohol and neglect are all factors that could increase these struggles.
As a society, focusing on mental health more could be a good start. These struggles usually begin at an early age. Early detection can be helpful to deal with these certain problems.
Even though the pandemic started four years ago, everyone is still getting over that period. “When you’re in isolation for any amount of time, it really makes you stop and look inward and turn on itself and turn into depression. When we had this almost one year break from doing a lot of normal things, maybe some of those social skills took a hit, and makes you feel a little more anxious going out there,” Waugh said.
One question is, should I have my children play sports growing up? “I think that if it’s (playing sports) something that a child or a young adult wants to do. Then they should be encouraged to do that because there is also a lot of research around that being out and being active helps with mental health,” Waugh said.
There are pros and cons on both ends of the spectrum, but there may not be a right or wrong answer. With future research we may know more, but today it is still in question. This may be a decision that each family makes individually. Whatever side you end up choosing will be beneficial.