In My Feelings: Division I Student-Athlete Seeking Mental Health Support

Examining the framing of mental health in Division I student-athlete handbooks

“…This type of supportive environment is essential to shedding the stigmas related to mental health and athletics. Barriers to college athletes seeking help for mental health have been well documented and include lack of time (e.g., Beauchemin, 2014;Lopez & Levy, 2013), fear of reprisal from coaches or administrators (e.g., Proctor & Boan-Lenzo, 2010;Sudano et al, 2017), fear of experiencing personal discomfort (e.g., Sasso et al, 2022;Watson, 2005), and fear of reprisal from coaches or administrators (e.g., Proctor & Boan-Lenzo, 2010;Sudano et al, 2017). These barriers are all addressed within the data.…”

“…One of the challenges with college athletes not seeking more mental health support is the existence of barriers that may preclude them from asking for help (Gross et al, 2020;Ryan et al, 2018). These barriers include lack of time (e.g., Lopez & Levy, 2013;Beauchemin, 2014), fear of reprisal from coaches or administrators (e.g., Proctor & Boan-Lenzo, 2010;Sudano et al, 2017), fear of experiencing personal discomfort (e.g., Watson, 2005;Sasso et al, 2022), and perceptions that they will be perceived as weak for seeking help (e.g., Moore, 2017;Bird et al, 2020). Research has also indicated athletes may not understand the services available to them (Ryan et al, 2022).…”