An updated systematic review of interventions to increase awareness of mental health and well-being in athletes, coaches, officials and parents

Abstract

Background Interventions designed to increase mental health awareness in sport have grown substantially in the last 5 years, meaning that those involved in policy, research and intervention implementation are not fully informed by the latest systematic evaluation of research, risking a disservice to healthcare consumers. Hence, our aim was to update a 2017 systematic review that determined the effect of sport-specific mental health awareness programmes to improve mental health knowledge and help-seeking among sports coaches, athletes and officials. We extended the review to incorporate parents as a source of help-seeking and report the validity of outcome measures and quality of research design that occurred since the original review. Methods Sport-specific mental health awareness programmes adopting an experimental or quasi-experimental design were included for synthesis. Five electronic databases were searched: Psychinfo, Medline (OVID interface), Scopus, Cochrane and Cinahl. Each database was searched from its year of inception to June 2020. As all of the outcomes measured were derived from psychometric scales, we observed statistically significant quantitative effects on the basis of p < .05, and a small, medium or large effect size as d = .2, .5 or .8, respectively. Risk of bias was assessed using the Cochrane and QATSQ tools. Results Twenty-eight articles were included from the 2048 retrieved, eighteen additional articles since the original review. Eighteen studies targeted athletes, five with coaches, one sport officials (i.e. referees), one ‘at-risk children’ and three with parents. One of the studies was a combination of athletes, coaches and parents. In terms of study outcomes, health referral efficacy was improved in seven studies; twelve studies reported an increase in knowledge about mental health disorders. Proportionally, higher quality research designs were evident, as three of ten studies within the previous review did not demonstrate a high risk of bias, whereas thirteen of the eighteen additional studies did not display a high risk of bias. However, only one study included a behaviour change model in both the programme design and evaluation. Conclusions Our updated systematic review provides evidence of the benefits of mental health awareness interventions in sport; these benefits are mainly for athletes and show improvements in the methodological design of recent studies compared to the first review. There was also evidence of the extension of programme delivery to parents. In conclusion, researchers, practitioners and policy makers should consider methodological guidance and the application of theory when developing and evaluating complex interventions. Systematic review registration PROSPERO CRD42016040178

The Mental Health of Swiss Elite Athletes

“…Questionnaires that do not take such points into account could lead to an increased number of false positives. Our results suggest that clubs and federations may help to protect athletes' mental health by implementing these measures, ideally through programs whose content is based on a theory of behavior change (Breslin et al, 2022). In order to coordinate all possible measures to promote Swiss athletes' mental health, it would be useful to develop a national mental health strategy in competitive sports, similar to countries such as Canada (Durand-Bush & Van Slingerland, 2021).…”

Burnout and Mental Interventions among Youth Athletes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Studies

“…The systematic review on depressive symptoms and burnout in football players emphasized the positive effects of both CBT and MBI in preventing and curing mental problems [ 33 ]. Breslin et al (2022) underlined in a systematic review of the interventions to increase the awareness of mental health and wellbeing in athletes and coaches that there is a considerable need for longitudinal studies with larger samples of males and females, and validated measurement tools [ 34 ]. Observations show that, in some cases, athletes are even more prone to mental disorders when going through different adversities such as burnout, injury, and long competition periods when being away from friends and family.…”

Burnout and Mental Interventions among Youth Athletes：A Meta-Analysis of the Studies

“…The systematic review on depressive symptoms and burnout in football players emphasizes the positive effects of both CBT ad MBI in preventing and curing the mental problems [30]. Breslin et al (2022) underline, in the systematic review of the interventions to increase awareness of mental health and well-being in athletes and coaches, that there is a considerable need for longitudinal studies with larger samples of males and females and validated measurement tools [31]. Observations show that in some cases, athletes are even more prone to mental disorders when going through different adversities such as burnout, injury, and long competition periods when being away from friends and family.…”