Mental Health Prevalence in NCAA Division III Collegiate Athletes

Abstract

Stressors related to academic requisites, sport participation and pressure to perform may increase college athlete risk for mental health symptoms (Cox, Ross-Stewart, & Foltz, 2017; Sudano & Miles, 2017; Yang et al., 2007). The purpose of this study was to identify the level of clinically relevant self-reported mental health symptoms in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III athletes and variations based on sport participation (i.e., men’s or women’s athletics; team or individual sports) over a two-year period. A nonexperimental, trend study design was used. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, chi square test, and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) which used one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) for follow-up procedures. A MANOVA revealed a significant interaction of gender and sport type for general symptoms [F(1, 564) = 9.583, p = .002] and depression [F(1, 564) = 6.945, p = .009] but not anxiety [F(1, 564) = 3.332, p = .068, ƞ2 = .006]. The project was able to describe mental health symptoms in a population that is not often included in the literature. Knowledge of collegiate athlete mental health prevalence is important because prevention and early intervention is a key component of community-based health programming.

Depression, anxiety and stress among female student-athletes: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…The same study noted that female team sport student-athletes were 2.449 times more likely to report anxiety than male individual sport student-athletes. Alternatively, no differences in depression, anxiety and stress due to sport type were found in three different studies including two studies among Division I and II student-athletes16 26 and a study among Division III student-athletes 20…”

“…While this review aimed to understand determinants specific to female student-athletes, it is important to note that identifying as female, specifically a female student-athlete, was one of the leading reported determinants for increased depression, anxiety and stress in 16 articles 11–26. Identifying as female was associated with increased depression in 14 articles,11–23 25 increased anxiety in seven articles14 17 18 20 23 24 26 and increased stress in four articles 14 16 18 25. Moreover, female student-athletes reported a greater number of depression and anxiety diagnoses than their male counterparts 14.…”

“…Five studies explored the relationship between sport type and depression, anxiety and stress 16 20 21 24 26. One study among Division I student-athletes found the highest depression prevalence in track and field student-athletes (35.4%) and the lowest in lacrosse student-athletes (13.5%), with notable differences when factoring sex 21.…”

“…Fifth and finally, we acknowledge our decision to use the term female student-athlete throughout this paper to capture most closely what is reported in the literature to date. Among the included studies, 23 (44.2%) did not mention gender (ie, women)12 14–16 19–21 43 45 47 48 50–53 57 62 64 66 70–72 74 while the remaining 29 studies did mention female and/or women’s sport student-athletes, only four studies distinguished between biological sex (ie, female) and gender (ie, women) 11 26 58 73. Thus, while the terminology female student-athlete fits many athletes that compete in women’s sport, it is not as inclusive as we hope for future research.…”

“…10 This scoping review emphasised the current state of the literature focuses on eating disorders and disordered eating prevalence rates among elite female athletes and did not delve into prevalent mental health outcomes, including depression, anxiety and stress. Though there is a consensus regarding the importance of mental health for athletes, 4-9 evidence indicating female athletes report higher instances of anxiety and depression, 6 8 9 and evidence to support female student-athletes reporting higher symptom of depression, anxiety and stress, [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26] there is an under-representation of research specific to female athletes and lack of synthesised data for informed decision-making for this important athlete population.…”