Lack Of Time And Ability To Find Balance Compounds Stressors, Researchers Find

By Brenna Cohoon for DyeStat

Mental health experts across the country are weighing in on the internal and external sources of stress and anxiety that have contributed to a growing problem of depression and other mood disorders among college athletes. 

As the academic school year and fall sports season begins this month, the everyday demands on student-athletes are being analyzed and researched. 

Jasmine Morigney, a doctoral fellow in clinical psychology at Eastern Michigan University, has been placing an emphasis in her research on how mental health applies to athletes. Her studies are being guided by mentor Dr. Rusty McIntyre.

“On the research side, a lot of student-athletes report time to be the biggest stressor of managing all the responsibilities they have to do. Being a college student on top of being these really elite-level athletes and traveling for games and things like that, I think that time has come up the most on being the biggest stressor,” Morigney said.

Not having enough time to complete responsibilities, study, train or get enough food or sleep, can lead to a life that tips out of balance. 

Dr. Stacy Gnacinski, an Assistant Professor of Health Sciences at Drake University and also a consultant for the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia, has observed the difficulties experienced by student-athletes who struggle to find a healthy balance.

“The youth sport industry is, I think, a big challenge for young athletes and families. It’s a lot, very demanding, and I think it does contribute to some of the challenges we see with athlete identity and not really having much else going on just because they don’t have time,” Gnacinski said.

Gnacinski added that many issues around identity stem from “limited opportunity and time to develop other aspects of identity, (such as through) music, other sports, clubs, unstructured leisure time.” 

Gnacinski also believes that many of the recent mental health hardships seen within the NCAA are greatly exacerbated by the problems seen around the globe – and displayed daily by a 24-hour news cycle and endless social media content.

“I think the demands of sport haven’t necessarily changed. We’ve probably, if anything, gotten maybe a little better at managing training load than previous generations. My broad experience and research is kind of indicating that life outside of sport has changed the most,” Gnacinski said.

Many institutions have put forth efforts to provide essential mental health support not just for athletes, but student populations as a whole.  

In the wake of at least five suicides by athletes on college campuses in the first half of 2022, colleges are grappling with how to increase services.  

“All of us, certainly at the Division I level, are trying to learn from each other and communicate with each other about what seems to be working and what doesn’t,” said Mark Coberley, Associate Athletic Director for Sports Medicine, Welfare and Performance at Iowa State University. “ Most institutions now are moving toward having some people embedded within Athletics (departments) that coordinate and collaborate on care, and then develop a larger team of counselors that may specialize in particular areas that they could get the student-athletes connected with, depending on what their problem is.”  

What prevents people from utilizing the resources that are available? Why does a stigma persist among those who seek out help, particularly among athletes? What can be done to eliminate the stigma?

Chicago-based mental game coach Marc Anderson believes one solution lies in starting conversations about mental health early. Anderson takes pride in Athletes in Transition, a small group he ran in the early 1990s that provided high school athletes with the opportunity to connect with their peers to discuss common challenges. This experience combined with his clinical and sports performance practices have led Anderson to the conclusion that when discussions happen at an early age they are easier to revisit later.  

“If you can be in a safe place to talk about (mental health) among common kids who look like you, who are in sports like you, who are also good students, you find that your issues are common among other student-athletes. Normalizing that experience has led to kids feeling that it was okay to go get help. As kids grew up, getting help was something that they were already exposed to,” Anderson said.

Until more of those resources are made available to those involved in youth sports, it is important to continue spreading the word about how and where collegiate student-athletes can seek mental health support.

A trusted teammate or athletics department staff member can be a crucial starting point for those in need of assistance, experts said.

Coberley offered a useful analogy to help understand the scope and magnitude of the overall problem colleges and universities, in particular, face. 

“If you’re having a whole bunch of forest fires, the solution isn’t to build more fire departments,” Coberley said. “The solution is, how do you stop the forest fire? And so, I think that’s where we’ve got to, as a whole in athletics and across college sports, take a look at what is adding up to all of this? It’s multi-factorial. There’s not one thing. But, we’ve got to do a lot better job of educating everybody on that and also allowing there somehow to be perspective on all these different pressures going on in college sports.”

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255, https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/