Abstract
The Dual Continuum Model (DCM) posits that mental health and mental illness are two separate but related constructs (Keyes, 2002). This conceptualization suggests that there are subgroups of individuals who may share the same level of mental illness but differ on their level of mental health, and vice versa. The DCM has been applied in the athlete population (Kuettel et al., 2021), and within the university sport context (Slingerland et al., 2018). The current study examined differences among DCM subgroups of USPORTS athletes on self-reported impediments to academic success. The Canadian deployment of the 2019 National Collegiate Health Assessment was used for this analysis. This cohort included 2,004 Canadian varsity athletes (60.1% female). The survey included the Mental Health Continuum-Short Form (Keyes, 2005) and a self-report of if the respondent had been diagnosed with a mental illness. Participants also responded the degree to which several outcomes (e.g., relationship difficulties, sleep, stress) were impediments to their academic success. ANOVAs revealed that student-athletes with high mental health (i.e., flourishing) and no mental illness diagnoses perceived relationship difficulties, homesickness, sleep, and stress as significantly lower impediments to academic success than all other groups (p < .05). Furthermore, mentally ill but flourishing individuals’ academic success was significantly less impeded by sleep and relationship difficulties (p < .05) than their peers with mental illness diagnoses and worse mental health. These results demonstrate strong implications for the promotion of mental health (i.e., flourishing) in addition to the reduction of mental illness within this population.
