Collegiate Athletes’ Mental Struggles Introduction Athletes of all levels are coached to devote themselves solely to their physical performance. They are taught to work with great effort and never show weakness. When it comes to college athletes, they work 10 times harder with 10 times more pressure. With their full focus on the future of their careers, college athletes juggle academic workloads and practice athletics nonstop. Collegiate athletes face immense pressure to prioritize their physical performance and athletic careers. They focus so intensely on their athletic execution that they stop caring about their mental well-being. College coaches add even more pressure to these athletes, encouraging them to keep trying and never giving them …show more content…
struggle with juggling academics and their personal lives on a daily basis. College athletes, specifically, seem to carry more weight on their shoulders. Between high commitment athletics, priority academics, and extracurricular activities, this leaves collegiate athletes with a lack of additional time. The overwhelming amount of major activities in college athletes' lives that have a large impact on their futures can leave them struggling with their mental health. It can lead to various mental illnesses such as anxiety, depression, or even thoughts or actions related to suicide. According to an article by Meredith Hutchinson, Hannah Steven, BJ Johnson, Mir Hagans, and Chloe Schaefgen, five credible college students from Duke University, “One study shows that around 33% of all college students will experience serious mental health struggles, such as depression, anxiety, or eating disorders. Among this group, around 30% seek help through college resources. However, of college athletes experiencing mental health struggles, only around 10% seek help. College athletes are taught to be mentally tough so often that they never seek help when they face a true issue because they don’t want to show weakness or vulnerability.” College athletes are taught to never show weakness and always appear fearless. Because it’s so difficult for them to be vulnerable or show any weakness, these athletes tend to struggle with more …show more content…
However, it's crucial to recognize that neglecting mental health can lead to long-term negative outcomes on both performance and overall mental well-being, decreased motivation, and even burnout. According to the Mayo Clinic, “Burnout manifests as emotional exhaustion, loss of meaning at work, and feelings of ineffectiveness.” Burnout can often lead to depression. While an athlete’s physical performance can be excellent, they won't fully achieve success if they aren’t mentally well. By prioritizing mental health, athletes can develop resilience, improve focus, and maintain a healthy balance in their lives, ultimately enhancing their athletic performance. Physical performance is tied to mental wellness. It’s important to take a holistic approach that considers both physical and mental
It is very clear that college athletes are very devoted and committed adults. It is also very easy to see that these young adults are swamped with practice and game schedules. Many people don’t realize exactly how much time is devoted to practices. An article by O'Shaughnessy (2011) provides a run down of how much time each athlete puts into different sports. Division I baseball players spend 42.1 hours a week practicing on the field.(O'Shaughnessy, 2011) Divi...
1 in 4 people will be affected by mental health issues at some point in their lives. Depression affects 20-25% of Americans ages 18+ in a given year (CDC.) Student athletes are students who go to school but participate in athletics at the same time. Student athletes are at a higher risk due to having different stress factors that normal students don't have to go through during their college or high school athletic careers. Major events would be the death of Madison Holleran.
College sports are a major revenue producing industry. Athletic programs and their student-athletes can achieve national recognition and generate millions of dollars in revenue for their university. Colleges use this revenue to invest in players, pay for their education, and provide state of the art training facilities, which are used to improve their athletic performance. As revenue driven colleges begin to prioritize athletics, the emphasis on the quality and standards of an undergraduate education are diminishing. Compromising their academic acceptance requirements, universities have now found that the educational ability of their newly accepted student athletes are inadequate, to say the least (Gurney). The same universities must then spend millions of dollars to provide these athletes with “learning specialists”, who in turn helps them to meet academic requirements and maintain their eligibility (...
Howard-Hamilton, Mary F., and Julie Sina. "How College Affects College Athletes." New Directions for Student Services (2011): 35-43.
However, what this argument does not take into account is that athletes have an abundance of pressure put on them that most non-athletes don’t ever experience. Hence, the saying, “go hard or go home”. A recent study emphasizes this fact as McClatchy notes, ”The researchers monitored mood levels of 465 collegiate athletes over three years and found 6.3 percent of the athletes met the criteria for clinically significant depression and 24 percent were considered ‘clinically relevant’ “ (2016). Studies like these prove that athletes are not blind to the idea of depression, but rather experience this disorder themselves. Anxiety has a huge role in depression. As sportsperson, there is constant effort to become an awe-inspiring player. As the stakes of the game raise, so does the anxiety. Some want a scholarship, some want to show off what they offer to a team that got a scholarship, and some are professionals. Regardless of whether it's grade school sport or a professional sport, failing at personal goals one set is down right depressing. Kearns and Hwang state that, ”While it’s not clear whether the source of challenges to a student-athlete's mental well-being is the same as those non-athletes, collegiate athletes are known to encounter unique stressor that the general population doesn’t have to deal with, such as the demands, relationships with coaches and missed scheduled classes” (2014). Pressure is something everyone experiences. However, athletes experience some of the same pressure that of non-athletes and then some. Being on a sports team is demanding to time and the idea of being “superior”. In athletics, coaches are everything. For example, If a coach likes how a person attributes as a team player, then that person will get a chance to shine. However, if the coach is not very fond of one, then the chances of opportunities are not very
All college students sitting in classrooms today face challenges that can impede their success. A challenging course schedule, competing demand for the student’s time, and college readiness are all factors that can hinder a student’s performance in the classroom. Moreover, these challenges also have the ability to impact the student’s overall student development. While most students share a common set of stressors, there are certain groups on campus that face pressures and challenges that are not shared by the majority of their peers. Student athletes are such a group. Joshua Watson (2005) noted the positive benefits of participating in intercollegiate activities, but also noted that such participation can lead to issues of “maladjustment, emotional illness, and psychological distress” (p. 442).
Parents and teachers have preached that getting an education is important since students first entered Kindergarten. Although there is proof that athletes have endured success from both pathways, academics and athletics, it’s the financially safe and most logical choice for a student athlete to solidify his or her future after athletics. Becoming a professional athlete is a high-risk high reward situation but receiving a college education lowers that risk. A college education could potentially increase the knowledge further to enhance their athletic abilities intellectually also (Clary Dec. 13, 2009). Most of the time if the athlete is good enough to go pro it’s likely that they have athletic full–ride scholarships from major college programs. With college expenses the way they are today one might argue that this is a better deal especially if the chance of going pro remains after the athlete graduates from college. After retiring from...
College athletes and their learning struggles are common through higher educational facilities. Their marriage to two fulltime activities is not well known to the public. Why we are not seeing how many young athletes are used by the academic system? Is Petrie’s article true reflection of struggling athletes in crude education? Sad truth hidden in those articles is collecting dust in libraries. The truth is addressed to teachers, coaches and trainers.
College is a time for young people to develop and grow not only in their education, but social aspects as well. One of the biggest social scenes found around college campuses are athletic events, but where would these college sports be without their dedicated athletes? Student athletes get a lot of praise for their achievements on the field, but tend to disregard the work they accomplish in the classroom. Living in a college environment as a student athlete has a great deal of advantages as well as disadvantages that affect education and anti-intellectualism. Around the country, college athletic programs are pushing their athletes more and more every day.
Due to the nature of sport, athletes will always be faced with the possibility of becoming injured. Empirical research has demonstrated that injury has a psychological impact on athletes (Quinn & Fallon, 1999). Indeed, sports practitioners often witness negative psychological impacts such as depression and in extreme cases suicidal tendencies in the injured athlete (Jevon & Johnston, 2003). Injuries have a dramatic impact upon an athlete’s life (Deutsch, 1985), Crossman (1997) interviewed athletic trainers and established that 47% of respondents believed that every injured athlete suffered psychological trauma. Walker, Thatcher and Lavallee (2007), explain there is a need to advance current knowledge of the way injured athletes psychologically respond, with deeper understanding it would be possible to aid rehabilitation professionals and help the athlete cope better psychologically. Psychological issues have an important role in the athletes ability to recover from injury (Arvinen-Barrow, Penny, Hemmings, & Corr, 2010), understanding how an athlete responds will have multiple practical implications. Ford and Gordon (1997) suggest that if an athlete experiences negative emotions then it will lead to non-complinace of the rehabilitation process. In order to understand athletes psychological responses to injury several frameworks have been suggested. These include the: integrated model of response to sports injury and rehabilitation (Wiese-Bjornstal, Smith, Shaffer, & Morrey, 1998), the Bio-Psychosocial model of sport injury rehabilitation (Brewer, Andersen, & Van Raalte, 2002), the staged-based grief response models (Kubler-Ross, 1969) and the stage model of the return to sport (Taylor & Taylor, 1997).
Sports Psychology Today. Mental Edge Athletics, 4 Sept. 2012. Web. 28 Oct. 2013. Forde, Pat.
Playing a sport whether its basketball, soccer, football or any other of your interest can be thrilling, and accelerating. Not only can it be fun yet physical exercise is good for the mind, body, and spirit. Therefore, as an athlete one must keep in mind that playing any sport, injury is part of life and inevitable. Research has proven from time to time that severe injuries in sports can trigger psychological mental health issues, affecting them in their athletic performance.
Some recruited athletes are not prepared for the cascade of academic college work along with the additional demands that NCAA athletics require. The athletic pressures that accompany NCAA athletic scholarship can leave the unprepared student athlete with little time for
Sports psychology is the study of how psychology influences sports, athletic performance, exercise and physical activity. Some sports psychologists work with professional athletes and coaches to improve performance and increase motivation. Other professionals use exercise and sports to enhance people’s lives and well-being. While finding ways to help athletes is certainly an important part of sports psychology, the application of exercise and physical activity for improving the lives of non-athletes is also a major focus.
In the article, “Athletes and Coaches Report Mental Health is Slightly More Important Than Physical Health in Overall Performance; Both Agree That More Communication is Needed to Address Mental Health Concerns.”, the Minds in Motion Depression Awarenes Campaign conducted a survey and found that the athletes and coaches believed that “mental health shares an equal, and/or slightly greater role than physical health, in defining peak athletic