Collegiate Athletics in Crisis: Proactive and Reactive Measures towards Mental Health Outcomes

A special issue of Youth (ISSN 2673-995X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2023) | Viewed by 4189

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Health Promotion and Clinical Practice, College of Health and Wellness, Barry University, Miami Shores, FL 33160, USA
Interests: human body responds and adapts to continuous moderate-intensity exercise; high-intensity interval exercise and training programs; psychological; nutritional; pharmaceutical stimuli; and how these responses influence cardiometabolic processes in humans under the perspective of network physiology of exercise and lifestyle medicine

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Guest Editor
Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, State University of New York, Plattsburgh, NY 12901, USA
Interests: mental toughness; strength and conditioning; psychological well-being; student-athletes; positive psychology; coaching education; collegiate sports

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Recent tragic events and data from official NCAA reports suggest that student-athletes' well-being is compromised by symptoms of mental health disorders. Indeed, the situation appears to be even worse in the post-COVID-19 era.

While some measures have been taken, there is still stigma and misinformation around mental health and mental illness. Although the famous athletes that have spoken about their mental health struggles have considerably helped to shift people’s opinions, significant work must still be done.

This Special Issue aims to recognize mental health as an integral component of athletic performance, promote mental health sensitivity and awareness, and highlight that we are all contributors to mental health.

However, this Special Issue also aims to provide basic and applied scientific research on the negative (e.g., stress/depression, insomnia and alcohol use), but also on the positive mental health outcomes (e.g., happiness, social acceptance, autonomy) that arise from organized collegiate sports. 

This Special Issue will supplement the existing literature by collecting scientific data on fostering mental health in collegiate athletics. In particular, we invite mental health work on this specific youth age group that addresses the individual level (e.g., mental health needs of the student athlete), the team level (e.g., team environment supportive of the mental health needs of all student athletes), and the organizational level (e.g., policies and programs to support the previous two levels).

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Zacharias Papadakis
Dr. Andreas Stamatis
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Youth is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • collegiate athletics
  • mental health
  • depression
  • anxiety
  • NCAA
  • sport psychology
  • organizational psychology
  • NAIA

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

16 pages, 284 KiB  
Article
The Impacts of Burnout on Athletic Identity and Attitude towards Sport
by Luiza Sanches Marangoni, Suzanne Pottratz and Nataniel Boiangin
Youth 2023, 3(4), 1121-1136; https://doi.org/10.3390/youth3040071 - 06 Oct 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3544
Abstract
Sports can be a positive experience for some. However, it can also lead to increased stress and ultimately result in burnout. Previous research has examined burnout in sports. Although, little research has been conducted on how experiencing burnout can affect other factors such [...] Read more.
Sports can be a positive experience for some. However, it can also lead to increased stress and ultimately result in burnout. Previous research has examined burnout in sports. Although, little research has been conducted on how experiencing burnout can affect other factors such as an athlete’s view of their sport and their athletic identity. Collegiate athletes face many responsibilities: school, work, long hours of practice, physical, emotional, and social demands. An accumulation of these factors, combined with the inability to effectively cope with such demands, can lead an athlete to experience high levels of burnout. The purpose of this study was to examine the potential impacts that burnout could have on a collegiate athlete’s attitude towards their sport and their athletic identity. A phenomenological approach was used to examine five participants who scored high on the Athlete Burnout Questionnaire. Participants underwent a 1 h interview that evaluated their attitude towards sport and athletic identity. It was found that there was a meaningful negative change in attitude towards sport; however, no meaningful or permanent change was prevalent when evaluating athletic identity. Full article
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