A Commentary on Mental Health Research in Elite Sport

Abstract

Elite athletes may be as likely as members of the general population to experience mental disorders, and there has recently been a surge of research examining mental health among athletes. This paper provides an overview and commentary of the literature on the mental health of elite athletes and explores how trends within and beyond the field of sport psychology have impacted this literature. Reviewing the contextual influences on this field, namely disorder prevalence, barriers to support seeking, mental toughness, and psychiatric epidemiology, are important to understand the broader picture of mental health research and to further strengthen work undertaken in sport psychology. In addition, appreciating the influence of various contextual factors on athlete mental health research can help to highlight where sport psychology practitioners may focus their attention in order to advance research and applied practice with elite athletes experiencing poor mental health. It is important that researchers consider how they measure mental health, how studies on the mental health of elite athletes are designed, implemented, and evaluated, and how both researchers and practitioners may help to combat athletes' perceptions of stigma surrounding mental health. Considering topics such as these may lead to a deeper understanding of athlete mental health, which may in turn help to inform sport specific policies, applied practice guidelines, and interventions designed to enhance athlete mental health. Lay Summary: Recently, there has been an expansion of research on the mental health of elite athletes. We discuss some factors that have influenced the study of elite athlete mental health and how these factors continue to shape the field. We propose ways that researchers and practitioners may advance work in this area.

How Does a Sport Psychological Intervention Help Professional Cyclists to Cope With Their Mental Health During the COVID-19 Lockdown?

“…The mental health of athletes, coaches, and staff is an important component of high performance in sports. According to Poucher and colleagues, the definition of mental health presented by the World Health Organization as “a state of well-being in which every individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community” (Poucher et al, 2019 ). Indeed, mental health not only is the absence of mental illness but also includes the presence of positive feelings (emotional well-being) and positive functioning in individual life (psychological well-being) and community life (social well-being).…”

Self-Compassion, Social Rank, and Psychological Distress in Varyingly Competitive Athletes

“…A key concern was that there may have been a bias in the recruitment, in that compassion was clearly a part of the study's focus (the word compassion was in the study title). Poucher et al (2019) have recently discussed how the naming of study content (e.g., to explore 'wellbeing' rather than 'mental health') could drastically affect recruitment biases in athlete samples, and work in other fields has highlighted how study terminology can drastically affect results (Foroughi, Monfort, Paczynski, McKnight, & Greenwood, 2016). Fears of compassion were low in this study (scores around ~13) while a recent meta-analysis from Kirby et al (2019) had a mean score of 19.64 for nonclinical samples.…”

“…Poor mental health may be delicately intertwined with practices of hyper-competition and perfectionism (Sagar & Stoeber, 2009), distorted and narrow views of self and identity (Brewer & Petitpas, 2017), self-criticism (Sutherland et al, 2014) and verbal/physical abuse from others (Stirling, Bridges, Cruz, & Mountjoy, 2011). Improved awareness of mental health disorders in elite sport has led to a drastic increase in research; however, much about this population remains unknown (Poucher, Tamminen, Kerr, & Cairney, 2019;Rice et al, 2016). Exploring factors that can be addressed via systematic organisational or therapeutic intervention is crucial for promoting good mental health in athletes and the general population more broadly (Walton, Purcell, & Rice, 2019).…”

“…A key concern of the literature however is that 'eliteness' of athletes in the samples has not been well accounted for. Elite athletes are considered a relatively unique population due to competition and training demands (Poucher et al, 2019). There is a possibility that views towards compassion are variable amongst athlete levels, with more elite athletes showing a higher disposition to be competitive and self-critical (Hardy et al, 2017), and subsequently more resistant to self-compassion.…”

Are there Tourists Amongst us? A Participant-Centred Appraisal of an International Competitive Football Tournament in Malta

“…Even if the players display a seemingly natural ability to become professional football players, without the correct support, it is likely that their enthusiasm will be seriously dampened (Hoare and Warr 2000). Poucher et al (2019) also caution that mental health issues can prevail across all sports, and observe how there can be various contextual in uences impinging on athletes' lives. These include disorder prevalence, barriers to support seeking, and psychiatric conditions.…”