Levels and Prevalence of Mental Health Functioning in Canadian University Student-Athletes
Open accessAbstract
We examined the level and prevalence of mental health functioning (MHF) in intercollegiate student-athletes from 30 Canadian universities, and the impact of time of year, gender, alcohol use, living situation, year of study, and type of sport on MHF. An online survey completed in November 2015 (N = 388) and March 2016 (n = 110) revealed that overall, MHF levels were moderate to high, and more student-athletes were flourishing than languishing. MHF levels did not significantly differ across time based on gender, alcohol use, living situation, year of study, and type of sport. Eighteen percent reported a previous mental illness diagnosis and yet maintained moderate MHF across time. These findings support Keyes’ (2002) dual-continua model, suggesting that the presence of mental illness does not automatically imply low levels of well-being and languishing. Nonetheless, those without a previous diagnosis were 3.18 times more likely to be flourishing at Time 1 (November 2015).
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Keyes' dual-continua model has been endorsed in an elite sports context and empirically validated across general population studies.
“given this framework has been endorsed in an elite sports context [34, 63, 64] and empirically validated across a range of studies in the general population [32, 65, 66].”
From The Mental Health of Elite-Level Coaches: A Systematic Scoping Review (2024) · cites this paper as [66]
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Additional file 4 of The Mental Health of Elite-Level Coaches: A Systematic Scoping Review
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Additional file 6 of The Mental Health of Elite-Level Coaches: A Systematic Scoping Review
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Additional file 1 of The Mental Health of Elite-Level Coaches: A Systematic Scoping Review
Frost, J., Walton, C. C., Purcell, R., Fisher, K., Gwyther, K., Kocherginsky, M., & Rice, S. M. (2024) · Figshare · doi:10.6084/m9.figshare.25203625
Additional file 3 of The Mental Health of Elite-Level Coaches: A Systematic Scoping Review
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Additional file 5 of The Mental Health of Elite-Level Coaches: A Systematic Scoping Review
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- Authors
- Van Slingerland, K. J., Durand-Bush, N., & Rathwell, S.
- Affiliations
- University of Lethbridge (CA)
- ORCID
- Rathwell, Scott
- Venue
- Canadian Journal of Higher Education
- Published
- 2018-08-31
- Volume
- 48
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 149-168
- ISSN
- 0316-1218 (ISSN-L)
- 2293-6602
- OpenAlex
- W4244621565
- Cited by
- 36
- References
- 41
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 2 · 2018: 1
- FWCI
- 2.37
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc-nd
- Locations
- Canadian Journal of Higher Education (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Student Stress and Coping
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Sport Psychology and Performance
- Keywords
- mental health functioning, student athletes, eudaimonia, languishing, mental illness, well-being, alcohol consumption, gender differences, living arrangements, sport type, university students
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