Stress, Mental Health, Self-Regulation Mechanisms, and Exercising in Elite Youth Athletes: A Cross-Sectional and Ecological Momentary Assessment Study
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2019-09-06
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en
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Elite youth athletes are exposed to numerous stressors leading to particularly greater risks for experiencing mental health issues compared to general adolescent populations or elite adult athletes, which were mainly studied in the past. By focussing on elite youth athletes, this research provides first-time prevalence rates of mental health issues in German elite youth athletes. Additionally, the impact of sport characteristics (team, individual, indoor, outdoor sports), coping skills, emotion regulation, sleep quality, exercise duration, and exercise type (competition, sport specific training, additional training) were studied, resulting in innovative suggestions of factors influencing elite youth athletes’ stress and mental health. A mixed methods approach, consisting of a large-scale cross-sectional questionnaire including 175 (Study 1) and an Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) across four days with 45 German elite youth athletes (Study 2), was chosen. Eating disorders (almost 25%) were found to be the most prevalent mental health issue. Poor sleep quality, application of negative coping skills (Study 1), long exercise duration, and the competitive nature of elite sports (Study 2) were associated with enhanced stress and poor mental health. The overall results emphasise mental health issues being prevalent in elite youth athletes, which is suggested to be further studied using strong methodological approaches (e.g. EMA with greater sample sizes) or objective measures (e.g. clinical assessment).
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Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen