International society of sport psychology position stand: Athletes’ mental health, performance, and development

Evaluation and Adaption of the Trier Inventory for Chronic Stress (TICS) for Assessment in Competitive Sports

“…A wide range of stressors were identified in studies with athletes including stressors outside of sports as well as sport-specific, competition-specific, and other sport-related stressors (Beckmann and Ehrlenspiel, 2017; Ehrlenspiel et al, 2017; Gustafsson et al, 2017; Sallen, 2017; Tranaeus et al, 2017). The findings that stress research has generated in the field of competitive sports encourage efforts to develop and implement educational psychology interventions for athletes, to help them improve their personal stress resistance and prevent stress-related impairment of their health and performance (Rumbold et al, 2012; Stambulova, 2016; Breslin et al, 2017; Sallen et al, 2017; Schinke et al, 2017). Instruments for stress assessment are of great importance in this context.…”

“…Although there are many tools for assessing stress in athletes, there is a lack of instruments that are in line with recent stress-related research topics, theoretical perspectives, and approaches to psychosocial support for athletes. This can be seen, for example, in the current trend toward topics that focus on the mental health of athletes (MacIntyre et al, 2017; Schinke et al, 2017). This increasingly requires the use of more general, rather than only sport-specific, stress measurement instruments, such as those mainly used in clinical and health sciences.…”

“…To date, there is hardly any literature on stress measurement in athletes that considers such instruments. This is underpinned by the International Society of Sport Psychology (ISSP), which calls “to further develop existing lines of research on various forms of athletes' mental ill-being, including data on prevalence of mental illness, their sources, and forms of prevention and treatment” (Schinke et al, 2017, p. 12). That is one of the starting points of the present study.…”

“…Another starting point that is also suggested by the ISSP position stands and relates with the challenge “to apply a holistic view on athletes' development and their environment to be aware of all range of their current and potential distressors and risk factors” (Schinke et al, 2017, p. 12). Current theoretical positions in sport psychology career research include the holistic lifespan and ecological perspectives.…”

Addressing mental health in elite athletes as a vehicle for early detection and intervention in the general community

“…The careers of elite athletes typically peak at similar age ranges to the onset of mental health disorders (Kessler et al, ), and youth‐specific early intervention approaches are indicated (Rice et al, ). International position statements from key governing bodies have recently been published (Henriksen et al, ; Moesch et al, ; Reardon et al, 2019; Schinke, Stambulova, Si, & Moore, ) and this work represents a crucial step forward for the facilitation of mental health services for athletes. Indeed, in Australia, a recent government strategic plan has specifically highlighted improved mental health as a key outcome in both athletes, and the general public, as a result of sports participation and national success ( Sport Australia, ).…”