Young Adult Athletes’ Psychological Distress Differences by Level and Gender Identity

Abstract

The young adult population has the highest percentage of new mental health diagnoses (Edwards & Froehle, 2023). Collegiate sports – Club and DI level – introduce additional demands and stressors, including heavy workloads, performance anxiety, and balancing time demands (Edwards et al., 2023; Peacock, 2022). Women student-athletes have shown a higher prevalence of psychological distress symptoms than men (Wolanin, et al., 2016). Researchers have primarily focused on psychological distress of NCAA athletes rather than Club athletes (Martin, et al., 2021). Therefore, this study explored the differences in psychological distress prevalence between athletes’ level and gender identity. Participants for this cross-sectional study included 459 student-athletes: 254 (54%) DI athletes (95 men; 159 women) and 207 Club athletes (83 men; 122 women). These student-athletes were asked to provide demographic information (e.g., gender identity, sport) while completing a mental health screening, including anxiety and depression symptomology levels measured, respectively, by the General Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire-2 (GAD-2) and Patient Health Questionnaire-2 (PHQ-2), which are, validated brief versions of the GAD-7 and PHQ-9. The total scores align with classifications for clinical (3-6), subclinical (2), and minimal (0-1) symptoms. The chi-square analyses were used to evaluate differences in the prevalence of clinical, subclinical, and minimal levels of depression and anxiety across athletic level and gender. There were no significant differences in prevalence by gender. By athlete level, there was a significantly higher prevalence of subclinical anxiety (26%) among DI athletes compared to Club athletes (7%). As well as a significantly higher prevalence of subclinical depression (18%) among DI athletes compared to Club athletes (6%). Though no other differences were significant, compared to Club athletes, nearly twice as many DI athletes had clinical level anxiety symptoms and three times as many had clinical level depression symptoms. Thus, it can be concluded there is a higher prevalence of psychological distress among DI athletes compared to their Club peers. This may illustrate the effect of having greater sports performance related stress and time constraints on students’ mental health symptoms. These findings support the increasing trend and requirements for NCAA DI Athletics Departments having embedded sport psychologists and mental health counselors.