Mental Health
Background to the Research Field
Mental health is becoming increasingly important in and outside of competitive sports. Many renowned athletes, such as Michael Phelps, Simone Biles, and Robin Gosens, have spoken openly about their mental health struggles. Yet, the topic often remains in the background, and the true number of those affected is difficult to determine.
There are many factors in competitive sports that can impact mental health. Injuries, intense pressure to perform, and high expectations can be stressful and overwhelming for athletes. At the same time, sports offer positive experiences like a sense of community, achievement, and social support. This highlights that sports can be both beneficial and challenging for mental health.
In this context, previous research indicates that athletes in high-performance sports show similar or even slightly higher rates of mental disorders than the general population. However, robust prevalence data in specific settings such as professional soccer are still lacking, as are contextualized insights into how disorders emerge in relation to factors like performance pressure and seasonal demands, and into the underlying causal mechanisms. In this context, it is further crucial to consider that certain demographic characteristics, such as sex and age, can systematically influence results. For example, women report symptoms of mental disorders more frequently than men, not only in the general population but also in athlete samples.
Projects within the Research Field
It is our goal to shed light on mental health in competitive sports through cross-sectional and longitudinal surveys and to share our research openly with the public. By doing so, we aim to break down stigma and encourage a more open, supportive conversation about the importance of mental health in this high-performance context and provide practical implications for athletes, coaches, and sport psychologists.
In an initial, longitudinal study of mental health in a Bundesliga club, we explored symptoms of anxiety and depression in youth and adult teams across an entire soccer season. Our results showed that mental health is an important issue in elite soccer and may affect female players more than male players. In addition, we found evidence that the severity of symptoms changes throughout the season.
Due to our initial findings, we now specifically focus our research on female soccer players, who are not only more strongly affected, but also a particularly interesting group due to the rising public attention and performance demands, and at the same time, limited support structures. We therefore investigated anxiety and depression symptoms in a large sample of German female soccer players from amateur and elite clubs and different age groups. We aim to identify symptom changes over the competitive season and relevant risk and protective factors. Potential risk factors may include personality traits, such as neuroticism, sports-related factors, such as injuries or performance dissatisfaction, or external stressors, such as parental expectations or balancing dual-career commitments and soccer.
While research in competitive sports typically focuses on athletes, coaches are often overlooked. Yet, this environment constitutes a unique professional setting, shaped by specific structural and competitive conditions. Coaches regularly face a wide range of performance-related, organizational, and personal demands, which can negatively affect their mental health. To address this research gap, we investigated how job demands and resources impact the mental health of head and assistant coaches in German elite youth academies. Because we observed substantial rates of depression and anxiety symptoms, we further provided practical implications for coaches and decision makers in youth performance centers to foster mental health among staff.
Not only our own research, but also findings from several research groups across different sports disciplines underscore the importance of mental health in high-performance sports. Nevertheless, there is still a lack of contact points where athletes can obtain information and seek professional advice in case of need. Therefore, we also support the initiative ATHLETES IN MIND (https://www.athletes-in-mind.de/ ).
