Mental Health Survey Analysis - 2021

What are the effects of pressure, support systems, and time spent in the culture of athletics impact on the mental health of collegiate student athletes as reported by current collegiate athletes?

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Introduction:

Simone Biles pulled out of the 2021 Summer Olympics due to mental health reasons, and was not the first professional athlete to give voice to mental health struggles. In recent months, many high profile athletes have published articles, documentaries, and have posted on social media sharing their experiences. Following the example of professionals, this conversation is finally beginning to happen in amateur athletics. I have noticed addressing mental health in the student athlete population is drawing increased attention from media, administration, and athletic communities. This comes as no surprise to myself and athletes I know who have experienced all of the incredible demands that college sports place on young adults. While broad surveys across various divisions in the NCAA have been conducted recently in attempts to identify ways to help athletes, those surveys fail to ask critical questions related to the role of pressure origins (pressure from superiors and reporting mental health vs pressure from yourself and reporting mental health), support systems (people willing to speak to superiors and reporting mental health issues vs people willing to speak to family and friend and reporting mental health issues), and how this culture impacts athletes over time (what year are you and reporting mental health issues). With all that being said, I came up with a research question that asks, “What are the effects of pressure, support systems, and time spent in the culture of athletics impact on the mental health of collegiate student athletes as reported by current collegiate athletes?

Data:

The survey obtained a sample size of 54 respondents. A majority of the respondents identified as females (80%), who played a division 1 sport (50%), and have had or struggled with mental illness (44%). I obtained this convenience sample by sending out a mass email to my teammates and close friends who are athletes at other schools. Even though I had 20 respondents at that point, I wanted to increase my sample size so I shared my survey link on social media (Instagram) as well.

Methods:

In the analysis of my study I wanted to take a closer look at the bivariate statistics regarding mental health of student athletes. When creating this survey I thought of questions that I wished I was asked in the surveys that all student athletes receive from either their respective school or the NCAA. I focused on variables such as the pressure that is applied to student athletes and how that affects their mental health as well as, how free they feel to talk about their mental health, and how their academic year (freshman, sophomore, junior, etc.) can impact their mental health. I am specifically using bivariate statistics because all of my survey questions result in categorical data that cannot be broken down into means, medians, or modes. Therefore, the analysis of my survey will be focused on the cross tabulations I created and the results that followed.

Results:

Figure 1 - student athletes responses to history of mental illness

Figure 1 indicates that 34% of the respondents reported never having or struggling with mental

illness.

Below are four figures that are composed of cross tabulations. Each cross tabulation holds constant the independent variable of struggles with mental health. For example, in Figure 2, the variables included are history of mental health struggles and the amount of pressure that is applied to the student athletes by their superiors.

Figure 2 - Pressure applied by superiors (i.e. coaches, trainer, athletic department) in relation to history of mental illness

Figure 4 - Ability to openly talk about mental health with superiors (i.e. coaches, trainers, and athletic department) & History of mental illness

Of the respondents who said “Y es” to struggling with mental illness, 95% of those respondents felt comfortable to some degree addressing their struggles with friends and family. When that same group of student athletes who reported struggling with mental health were asked how comfortable they felt talking to their superiors, only about 9% said they would feel “free” to talk to their superiors about their mental health. A similar trend is evident for those athletes who reported being “unsure/undiagnosed” in regards to having a mental health issue.

Figure 5 - History of struggling with mental illness & class year

In Figure 5, we can see the trend of respondents reporting struggles with mental health increases from freshman to junior year from about 9% to 45%, after which reported struggles decrease to about 20% and taper off to less than 5%. If this sample is representative of the population of student athletes, then this cross-sectional data can be applied to a longitudinal scenario that argues that over time student athletes are more likely to struggle with mental health issues until after they graduate. This trend could also be a product of increased self-awareness over time or the increase in academic difficulties. Moreover, these could be factors that ignite potential problems with spuriousness in the relationships.

Conclusion:

Conclusively, the original research question that I posed asks, “What are the effects of pressure, support systems, and time spent in the culture of athletics impact on the mental health of collegiate student athletes as reported by current collegiate athletes?” As the results show, a majority of current student athletes reported struggles with mental illness (44%). Over half of the 54 respondents felt that their superiors applied either “A lot” or “Great deal” of pressure. Furthermore, over 90% did not feel free to talk about their mental health with their superiors. A potential factor that might contribute to these feelings could be that a student athlete is worried to voice personal and vulnerable information in fear that it might impact their playing time or simply how they are viewed by their superiors. Lastly, there's an increase in struggle with mental health from freshman to junior year. After junior year it drops drastically to 22.7%. This could be due to a boost in morale given that it’s their last year. In hindsight there are several things that I would have added, managed better, or done differently. In particular, I wish I could have surveyed a more balanced population of student athletes when it comes to sport, division, and gender. If such a population was surveyed, then I could see if there were trends between specific sports and mental health and particularly, how comfortable they felt sharing with their superiors. Another change I would make is to omit the initial question of my survey, which was “Are you a current college student athlete?”. After sending out my survey and quickly receiving 20 responses, I immediately regretted not having non-student athletes take the test. If I had included non-student-athletes, I believe the comparisons between the two communities would encompass interesting findings and possibly show more of where the stress or mental health struggles originate for athletes. Regardless of these various changes I would like to make, I stand by my research. My specific question allowed me to dive deeper into the various factors that affect the mental health of athletes. Plus, the conversation of athletes’ mental health is more important than ever, given recent developments in the professional athlete community.