Abstract
Student-athletes have to balance academic and athletic stressors. Stress, among other factors, increases student-athletes’ vulnerability to elevated mental health disorder symptoms (e.g., depression, anxiety). Many integrated support team professionals (e.g., ATs, CMPCs) use self-reported questionnaires to flag student-athletes’ elevated mental health disorder symptoms and refer them to clinical services when necessary. While such screenings are time-effective and feasible, they only detect a portion of all athletes who may benefit from additional care. Meta-analytic evidence suggests that student-athletes tend to underreport depressive symptoms in non-anonymized screenings, missing almost 50% of athletes who would screen under anonymized conditions. Yet, original research has yet to be conducted to confirm these findings, which was the purpose of the present study. One hundred and eighty-eight student-athletes (female n = 91, 48.7%, Mean Age = 19.8, SD = 1.6) were invited to partake in a regular, non-anonymized mental health screening using self-reported questionnaires (PHQ-9; GAD-7), as a deception. Once the screening was completed, the deception was solved and participants were invited to complete a second, anonymized screening of the same measures. Dependent t-tests indicated significantly higher mental health symptoms on the second, anonymized screenings for both depression (t(187)=8.62, p<.001, d=.63) and anxiety (t(187)=4.83, p<.001, d=.35). Follow-up qualitative interviews revealed a variety of barriers (e.g., stigma, denial) and facilitators (e.g., trust, transparency) of reporting symptoms. The findings yield important implications for sport healthcare professionals who wish to screen their student-athletes for mental health disorder symptoms.
