Elite athletes experience a unique range of stressors that may potentially increase their vulnerability to mental health problems. Key factors include the psychological impacts of injury, overtraining and burnout; public and media scrutiny; and managing ongoing competitive pressures to perform. For the assessment and management of the mental health needs of elite athletes’ to be on a par with their physical needs, more high-quality epidemiological and intervention studies are needed. Ideally, where possible and appropriate, the results of these should be disseminated beyond the organization or sporting code. To this end, researchers at UBC and beyond are undertaking leading-edge investigations that aim to develop a better understanding of the factors that affect the mental health of athletes and how their mental health needs can be optimally met.
Research from Around the Globe
- Depressive symptoms in high-performance athletes and non-athletes: a comparative meta-analysis
- The Mental Health of Elite Athletes: A Narrative Systematic Review
- Collegiate athletes’ mental health services utilization: A systematic review of conceptualizations, operationalizations, facilitators, and barriers
- Are mental toughness and mental health contradictory concepts in elite sport? A narrative review of theory and evidence
- Addressing mental health through sport: a review of sporting organizations’ websites
- Responses of track and field coaches to athletes with eating problems.
- Mental Health in Sport (MHS): Improving the Early Intervention Knowledge and Confidence of Elite Sport Staff
- Sport psychiatry and psychotherapeutic intervention, circa 2016
- Student-Athletes’ Perceptions of Mental Illness and Attitudes Toward Help-Seeking
- Working with sports organizations and teams