The onset of COVID-19 and cancellation of collegiate sports may have exacerbated student-athletes' psychological distress. Within a national sample of collegiate student-athletes (N = 5755; 66.7% women; 72.3% White), I determined how gender, race, and sport season related to rates of depression, stress, and counseling use. I used a cross-sectional methodology and collected data in April/May 2020. Overall, 26.5% (n = 1526) and 10.6% (n = 612) of the collegiate student-athletes endorsed clinical and high levels for depression and stress, respectively; 25.1% (n = 1443) and 69.7% (n = 4014) reported subclinical and moderate levels of depression and stress, respectively. Few student-athletes reported counseling use before (17.1%) or after (2.3%) the onset of COVID-19; those who reportedly used services endorsed higher levels of depression and stress than those who did not. Female student-athletes reported higher rates of depression, stress, and counseling use than male student-athletes. There were no race or sport season effects. Student-athletes who competed in spring sports endorsed higher levels of counseling use than student-athletes who participated in a fall season sport. Athletic departments must address their student-athletes' psychological distress by facilitating a higher use of mental health services.

Thesis (M.S.)--Miami University, Dept. of Physical Education, Health, and Sport Studies, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 48-55).

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology / Stephen L. Benton; Adrienne Leslie-Toogood / There is growing concern over the academic performance of student athletes in today’s institutions of higher education. Across all media, the public is constantly reminded that the success rate of student athletes is not what it should be. One hypothesis for this poor performance is that athletes are not as well prepared to go to college as their non-athletic counterparts. This could be attributed to low high school academic standards, or high school teachers allowing athletes to underperform due to their status as an athlete, or a lack of time for studying due to sport participation. The NCAA mandates certain academic standards for entrance into college, yet athletes still struggle to maintain passing grades, with some failing to graduate. Most college students are admitted to college based on their potential to benefit from an institution’s programs and educational opportunities. In many institutions, especially at the Division I level, student athletes are admitted for their potential to provide benefits for the institutions. This study compared the college graduating GPA of athletes and nonathletes relative to ACT score to determine if athletes were underperforming in college. Additionally the effect of gender, ethnicity and type of sport was examined. This study used hierarchical regression equations to examine these effects. When looking at athletes only, type of sport, gender, and ethnicity had very little influence on graduating GPA. When examining all students, ACT test scores were significantly related to college graduating GPA.

Mental health has become increasingly important on post-secondary campuses across Canada, as the majority of university students represent the cohort of the Canadian populace that is most vulnerable to mental illness, substance abuse, and suicide. Evidence suggests that student-athletes, a visible and diverse sub-population of university students, are at equal risk of experiencing a mental illness (Reardon & Factor, 2010), but could be even more vulnerable to mental health challenges than their non-athlete peers (Neal et al., 2013; Watson & Kissinger, 2007), given the additional demands and pressures that they face. Problematic though, is that the culture of athletics and prevailing stigma surrounding mental illness can lead student-athletes to overreport their well-being and deny distress (Steiner, Denny, & Stemmle, 2010), as well as underutilize the mental health services available to them on campus (Lopez & Levy, 2013). Although researchers have investigated the mental health of American college students (e.g., Eklund, Dowdy, Jones, & Furlong, 2011) and attempted to understand the vulnerability of National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) student-athletes to specific mental illnesses (e.g., eating disorders and substance abuse, Reardon & Factor, 2010), no study to date has investigated the mental health of student-athletes competing in Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS), particularly not using a holistic lense. As such, the overall purpose of the present study was to provide foundational data relating to Canadian student-athletes’ mental health functioning and other relevant indices such as their stress levels, mood, capacity to self-regulate, and perceptions of coaching climate. The first objective was to understand (a) the level and prevalence of mental health functioning (MHF) of student-athletes competing in the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) system at two different time points in their academic year (Fall = Time 1, Winter = Time 2) and (b) whether significant differences existed in their levels of MHF (emotional, social, and psychological well-being) between Time 1 and Time 2 and based on gender, alcohol use, living situation, year of study, and type of sport. Results indicated that the student-athletes from 30 different Canadian universities experienced moderate to high levels of MHF at both time points, including those who reported a previous mental illness diagnosis. Furthermore, there was a higher prevalence of flourishing compared to languishing student-athletes at both time points. Repeated measures MANOVA tests indicated that student-athletes’ MHF did not significantly differ across time based on their gender, alcohol use, living situation, year of study, and/or type of sport. However, when a 5-way MANOVA test was conducted with the larger sample Time 1 data to have more statistical power, results revealed a significant main effect of gender, suggesting that women had significantly lower levels of social well-being than men during the first part of the academic/athletic year (see Article 1). The second objective was to examine relationships between variables that could potentially influence the MHF of CIS student-athletes, namely, their stress, mood, self-regulation capacity, and perceptions of the coaching climate. A path analysis revealed that the student-athletes’ MHF was significantly impacted by the frequency of their maladaptive reactions to stressors, mood states, capability to self-regulate, and the climate fostered by coaches. The third aim was to determine if changes in student-athletes’ self-regulation capacity over the academic/athletic year were related to changes in the other variables of interest. A t-test was first run to establish whether there was a change in their self-regulation capacity from Time 1 to Time 2, however, their levels remained steady over these time points. A subsequent path analysis showed that change scores in self-regulation capacity were not significantly related to change scores in MHF, stress, mood, and perceptions of coaching climate (see Article 2). The hope is that the results of this study may inform the strategic directions of mental health promotion and maintenance programming designed for CIS student-athletes in the future.

This qualitative study examined African-American student athletes' perceptions of engagement at a Division One Predominately White Institution. Bronfenbrenner's social ecological theory was used as a framework to explore the following research questions: How do African-American student-athletes make meaning of campus engagement? How do African-American student-athletes engage with their university? Four themes emerged from the data: (a) Unfulfilled Expectations; (b) Feelings of Isolation; (c) Commitment to Sport and (d) Social Involvement. The findings suggested that home, school community and societal factors may be linked to the differential experiences African-American student-athletes reported, and, as a result, may be worthy of additional exploration. Implications for African-American student-athletes and their families, as well as K-16 administrators were reported.

The basis of dietary habits is linked to an individuals’ nutrition knowledge; for collegiate athletes this is the difference between optimal performance and falling short. To understand how nutrition information is disseminated to student-athletes, this research surveyed the athletes themselves and their sports staff (coaches, athletic trainers, and strength and conditioning specialists) on their current knowledge. Sport staff and student-athletes at East Tennessee State University were given the opportunity to participate in a 52-question online survey that tested both their general and sports-related nutrition knowledge. While the study sample size did not allow for statistical analyses required to address all three research questions, findings did indicate some variation between teams on measures of nutrition knowledge, and there was a statistically significant difference between sport staff and athletes’ general and sport nutrition knowledge. This study aimed to understand if nutrition knowledge of sport staff directly affects that of their corresponding athletes.

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Numerous studies have been completed on the academic ability of student athletes. Since the mid 1980s, the NCAA has emphasized the importance of academics and mandated more stringent requirements to be able to participate in intercollegiate athletics. These initial-eligibility standards have been successful in increasing overall graduation rates of student-athletes, but there remain a number of concerns. The purpose of the study was to determine if an NCAA D-I freshman student athlete's place of residency on campus, as opposed to off campus, while attending college during his/her freshman year had a statistically significant relationship to achievement as it relates to academic performance. The continued purpose of the study examined the relationship between selected socio-demographic components to academic performance in NCAA D-I freshman student athletes and how this relationship may have directly related to their academic performance during their freshman year. Participants completed the informed consent along with a questionnaire to aid in determining what academic and socio-demographic variables were related to academic performance (N = 205). Based on the results of this study, it was concluded that living on or off campus had no relationship with how the freshman student athletes performed academically. The best individual correlations with academic performance were high school GPA, gender, and ACT scores. These relationships proved to be a moderate relationship because an r value of .75 or greater was not reached. High school GPA, ethnicity, gender, absences unexcused, and ACT scores did enter a stepwise multiple regression equation, but could only explain 55% of the variance for that equation. Statistically 60% is an acceptable level for predicting academic performance in the study. However, it should be noted that 55% of the variance is relevant for those individuals who deal with the academic performance (i.e., athletic administrators, academic advisors, university faculty, parents, etc.) of student athletes to encourage the use of these variables to predict a student athlete's academic success. The other remaining variables showed only a low or very low relationship to a freshman student athlete's academic performance.

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