A comprehensive examination of factors impacting collegiate athletes' utilization of psychological assessment and intervention services

Abstract

Although collegiate athletes underutilize mental health programming, investigators have rarely examined factors that may influence their participation in such programs. The current study examined how structured interviews and demographic factors influence collegiate athletes to use psychological programming. Two‐hundred and eighty‐nine collegiate athletes were referred to the study. They were screened for mental health and randomly assigned to one of two semi‐structured interviews based on experimental phase. Participants in Phase I received standard engagement (SE; N = 35) or SE + discussion of mental health (DMH; N = 44). Phase II participants received SE + DMH (N = 82) or SE + DMH + discussion of personal ambitions (DPA; N = 66). Phase III participants received SE + DMH + discussion about their culture of choice (DCC; N = 25) or SE + DMH + discussion of sport culture (DSC; N = 37). After receiving the respective interview participants were offered psychological assessment and intervention. χ2 analyses revealed class standing, mental health symptom severity, referral type, and type of engagement interview influenced program commitment/utilization. Logistic regression analyses indicated SE + DMH + DPA and SE + DMH + DSC uniquely improved assessment attendance whereas referrals from coaches/teammates, participation in sport performance workshops, and senior status uniquely improved assessment and intervention attendance.

Supporting the mental health of postsecondary student-athletes: Implications from literature for the Canadian context.

“…Instead, men often internalize their struggles rather than seek mental health support (Harris & Maher, 2022). Lastly, students just beginning their postsecondary and athletic journey may be less likely to access psychological assessment and intervention in comparison to their more senior peers (Donohue et al, 2021), which indicates that class standing can be a barrier.…”

“…Student-athletes may also be more likely to follow through with seeking mental health interventions if referrals come from a sport-specific workshop, coaches, teammates, or athletic trainers (Donohue et al, 2021). In interviews with athletic trainers, they believed their role to be the most influential in athlete’s psychological help-seeking (Harker & Petrie, 2023).…”

“…Postpresentation surveys indicated that the athletes experienced increases in knowledge and positive attitudes towards mental health and help-seeking (Kern et al, 2017). Furthermore, Donohue et al (2021) found that sport performance workshops and presentations given to groups of athletes and supported by coaches were highly attended by student-athletes. This finding suggests that group-based interventions facilitated by sport mental health professionals may be valuable to increase mental health support utilization.…”

“…Identity Factors. Identity factors, such as gender, ethnicity, and class standing, can create distinct experiences for studentathletes that may impact mental health help-seeking behaviours (Ballesteros & Tran, 2020;Barnard, 2016;Donohue et al, 2021). Ballesteros and Tran (2020) found that out of 271 racial-ethnic minority student-athletes, 78% reported needing mental health support within the past year, but only 11% reported seeking support, which may indicate unique barriers to accessing mental health support, such as racism.…”

A Controlled Evaluation of a Sport-Specific Performance Optimization Program in an Athlete Diagnosed With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Oppositional Defiant Disorder Within the Context of COVID-19

“…Thus, TOPPS is especially relevant to the improvement of these symptoms ( Donohue et al, 2018 ), but with added COVID-19 precautions (i.e., video-conference intervention delivery). Zoom is a video-conferencing software that has been widely used by psychotherapists and shown to be efficacious in delivering behavioral therapies ( Boelen et al, 2020 ), and its integration into TOPPS delivery is likely to be successful as teletherapies have been used previously to facilitate intervention engagement in FBT ( Donohue et al, 2016 ; Donohue et al, 2020a ).…”