Mental health is an important topic in competitive sports, but there is only limited data from Switzerland. Although mental health is a prominent topic, it is difficult to estimate the efforts of Swiss sports federations to promote mental health. A representative sample of Swiss athletes (N = 1003, Mage = 21.69, SDage = 7.09, 54% women, 37% team sports, 10% injured) answered questions about symptoms of mental health problems and their well-being. We also asked about the extent of basic need satisfaction and perceived organizational support. Overall, the numbers on symptoms of mental health problems (17% depression, 10% anxiety, 22% eating disorders, 18% sleep disorders) and well-being are comparable to other elite sport samples and the general Swiss population. However, we found large group differences. For example, 52% of women athletes were affected by at least one mental disorder symptom, compared with 30% of men athletes. Injured athletes were most affected in terms of depressive symptoms. The study also shows that need satisfaction and frustration in conjunction with demographic factors is related to well-being and symptoms of mental health problems. Furthermore, the more support athletes perceive from their federations, the better their mental health. We conclude that a substantial proportion of athletes are affected by symptoms of mental disorders and more measures are needed to improve this situation, for example through supporting need satisfaction in the sport setting.
Sport is an area of life that is strongly driven by the desire for performance which can encourage athletes to neglect their health and wellbeing. It is therefore not surprising that research on mental health in sport has found prevalence of diagnosable psychiatric disorders ranging from 4% to 68% (Elbe & Nylandsted Jensen, 2016). Thriving describes a combination of high well-being (i.e., flourishing) and a sustained high level of performance (Brown et al., 2018) and could therefore be an ideal term to promote both in this kind of environment. The purpose of this poster is to provide a conceptual framework indicating coaches’ fields of action for the promotion of athletes’ mental health, well-being and performance (i.e., thriving). Literature on the promotion of mental health and wellbeing within the sport setting was searched and critically reviewed. In this evaluation two sources were found to be especially helpful as foundation of such a conceptual framework. One source was a scoping review investigating risk and protective factors for mental health in elite athletes (Kuettel & Larsen, 2020). The second article presented a conceptual model for mental health and performance of North American athletes (Ayala et al., 2022). The new framework defines six areas in which coaches have primary responsibility for promoting the thriving of their athletes (i.e., mental health stigma; mental health literacy; social support and team relationship; psychological needs satisfaction; intentional practice with a strong focus on injury and overtraining prevention; career management). In three other areas coaches have a supporting role (i.e., self-awareness; mindfulness; set back and stress management including psychological skills training). The proposed conceptual framework can be used to enable coaches to strengthen flourishing and performance of their athletes in a proactive manner.
