Thursday, January 29, 2015

Sources of Stress that Affect Collegiate Athletes

Collegiate student athletes face unique stressors that can have a negative effect on their well-being. Recent evidence suggests that athletes may experience even greater levels of stress due to the dual time demands of athletics and academics.2 Every student-athlete faces and deals with stress in different ways. The interaction of multiple stressors presents a unique problem for the college student athlete, and evidence suggests that the combination of stressors has a negative effect on their well-being2. Furthermore, the same effects upon performance can occur from either psychological or physiological sources of stress.


http://i.huffpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/286963/slide_286963_2234086_free.jpg
College student-athletes have historically been underrepresented within the college counseling centers. Research indicates that between 10-15% of student athletes have clinical needs significant enough to warrant counseling services.1 The kinds of additional challenges that student-athletes face include (a) learning to balance academic and athletic pursuits; (b) adapting to a certain degree of isolation from social and more “mainstream” activities; (c) managing success or lack thereof; (d) attending to their own physical health in a more deliberate way so as to minimize injury and subsequent rehabilitation; (e) terminating an athletic career and finding other activities in which participation will bring about a very similar, if not more heightened level of satisfaction.3          


Even though most student-athletes struggle with the above-mentioned issues and concerns, it would be incorrect to conclude that all of them contend with these concerns to the same degree. In truth, the degree of all of them contend with these concerns generates varies in intensity and duration. At one extreme, any one of these struggles and concerns might be experienced by athletes across the various categories as real crisis point in their life. At the other extreme, there are those athletes who might adapt to these challenges responsibly and who might resolve any emergent issues and concerns with greater degree of clarity, certainty and confidence that will bring about the kind of change that will be in their best interest3.


References
  1. Beauchemin, J. (2014). College Student-Athlete Wellness: An Integrative Model. College Student Journal, 48(2), 268-280. Retrieved October 21, 2014, from the EBSCO database.
  2. Wilson, G., & Pritchard, M. (2005). Comparing Sources of Stress in College Student Athletes and Non-Athletes. The Online Journal of Sport Psychology, 7(1), 1-7. Retrieved October 29, 2014

  3. Parham, W. (1993). The Intercollegiate Athlete: A 1990's Profile. The Counseling Psychologist, 21(3), 411-429. Retrieved October 29, 2014, from the SAGE database.

10 comments:

  1. We notice everyday how athletes deal with and handle the stress they go through, but your right to a degree, the more you coach it and manage it the more you can help an athlete deal with their problems. A athletes best interest is always what is most important.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Noah what are some of the ways that these athletes would combat these sources of stress?

    ReplyDelete
  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Noah what do you think the main source of stress is?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Kenny- One way that a student athlete could combat these sources of stress would be to talk to someone. Like I mentioned earlier 10-15% of student athletes have clinical needs significant enough to warrant counseling services, so going to talk to a counselor about their problems is definitely a solution.
    Rance- I believe the main source of stress that students athletes face is the ability to balance academics and athletics.

    ReplyDelete
  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Noah,

    This is a great read. I feel like you're touching on a very important topic that is overlooked a lot. The perception is that athletes have it easy because they're athletes. It is harder than people realize though. Keeping up with the demand of your sport, academics, and a life is challenging. You, as a baseball player, would know more than any of us.

    What are some things a college could offer to help student athletes with these issues?

    ReplyDelete
  8. I played sports my whole life and this is so true. When I was younger I was already playing select sports and was busy about 4 days out of the week and didn't attend many after school event or school friend parties. When I got to high school and played high school sports I became more involved with school friends but not really instill my junior year is when I really experienced high school party and other friends that were not my team mates. I think the sports were good because it keep me out of trouble but to much can keep you from having other experiences

    ReplyDelete