SPORT.
MENTAL HEALTH
Athletes are not immune to experiencing mental health issues and they require support to flourish within both their sporting and wider lives. On this page, you can find a summary of our research on sport and mental health and linked resources.
TRANSITIONS and challEnges
Transitioning into professional sport can pose both challenges and opportunities for athletes.
We have examined the process of transitioning into professional tennis. Within this work, athletes were interviewed to explore their personal experiences. You can read an academic paper about this work here. We have also written a blog post summarising mental health in professional tennis. You can read this here.
In addition, we were recently invited to take part in a BBC radio 4 documentary about this. Access this and read an associated blog post here.
TEAMMATE COMPASSION
Self-compassion is when athletes are kind, patient, and understanding towards themselves. It can help to improve wellbeing and performance. Yet athletes can also be compassionate towards others.
This is what our research is exploring through a new idea: Teammate Compassion.
We are currently exploring what makes compassion easier and more difficult for athletes. In this research, we are interviewing athletes from a variety of sports to hear their opinions.
We have also published a blog post on these topics, which you can read here. Watch this space for more news on this exciting new research!
RISK AND PROTECTIVE FACTORS
The sporting environment can present different risk and protective factors for athletes' mental health and well-being.
What do we know about athlete’s experience of mental illness and well-being? How can we promote optimal mental health in athletes and reduce risk for experiencing difficulties?
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These are just some of the questions that our current research aims to answer.
A key area this research focuses on is emotion regulation—the ability to manage our emotions in the moment through the use of various strategies. Read our academic paper on this topic here.
You can also read our most recent academic paper here which is focused on student-athlete mental health pre- to post-pandemic.
HELP SEEKING
Research suggests that athletes may not engage with help-seeking for mental health concerns.
We have recently conducted research exploring what is currently known about athletes’ perspectives on help-seeking for mental health. Here, we used a novel method of patient participant involvement (PPI) and conducted a synthesis of available research evidence.
Read a blog post about a protocol that we published in relation to this work here.