Risk for Depression and Psychological Well-Being in German National and State Team Athletes—Associations With Age, Gender, and Performance Level

Abstract

Adolescence is a vulnerable period for the development of depression. Research on depression in athletes including adolescent athletes, however, is scarce. The purpose of the present study was to assess the risk for depression depending on the athletes’ age, gender, and performance level. Data were collected from 1,799 German national and state team athletes. The PHQ-2 and the WHO-5 were administered to assess the athletes’ risk for depression and current state of psychological well-being. Overall, 13% of the athletes were screened positive for depression and 10% for impaired well-being. Adolescents, females and athletes of junior national teams showed a higher risk for depression and/or lower well-being than other subgroups. The finding that adolescent athletes are more vulnerable to suffer from depressive symptoms than adult athletes mirrors finding in the general population. Screening tools for depression should be followed up by clinical expert interviews to provide an external criterion for the obtained results.

Gaining perspectives: A scoping review of research assessing depressive symptoms in athletes

“…This could potentially cloud the meaning and interpretation of findings across studies (Schuch, 2015). While some studies have been more explicit in terms of making this distinction (e.g., Belz et al, 2018;Weber et al, 2018), some studies also identify the inability of depression questionnaires to provide a diagnosis of MDD as a limitation of their study (e.g. Beable et al, 2017;Weber et al, 2018).…”

Stress and risk for depression in competitive athletes suffering from back pain – Do age and gender matter?†

“…For example, a recent meta-analysis demonstrated that female athletes are more vulnerable to depression than male athletes (Gorczynski, Coyle, & Gibson, 2017). Studies on the relationship between age and depression parameters in athletes without BP, however, report inconsistent results (for an overview see Belz, Kleinert, Ohlert, Rau, & Allroggen, 2018).To address the aforementioned shortcomings, the first aim of this study was to assess the extent of stress and depression in athletes suffering from BP (operationalized as BP intensity and disability), while considering age and gender differences. Female athletes were hypothesized to be more vulnerable to depression than male athletes, whereas no gender difference was expected in stress levels.…”

Perception of social support provided by coaches, optimism/pessimism, and psychological well-being: Gender differences and mediating effect models

“…This pattern was inconsistent with the findings of some other sports studies that have reported female athletes to be more likely to have lower well-being or more negative emotions than their male counterparts. 33,34 In recent years, systematic reviews analyzing large samples and diverse studies have supported the gender similarities hypothesis; that is, male and female populations may be similar in most (but not all) psychological dimensions, with relatively small absolute gender differences observed across domains. 49,50 However, identifying the conditions under which gender differences are most pronounced would still offer some valuable practical implications.…”

“…The first objective of this study was to explore whether men differ from women in the dimensions of social support, optimism/pessimism, and psychological well-being. Although researchers have yet to arrive at a universal consensus, 31,32 recent sports research has highlighted gender-based differences in the psychological symptoms and well-being of elite athletes 33,34 ; that is, female athletes are more likely to be affected by psychological problems or negative emotions than male athletes are. However, in Taiwan, female athletes have exhibited superior athletic performance in various international competitions compared with male athletes in recent years.…”