Purcell R, Henderson J, Tamminen KA, et al. Starting young to protect elite athletes’ mental health. British Journal of Sports Medicine 2022, 57:439-440.
New published research summarizing the issue of mental health among elite young athletes has highlighted these rather alarming findings.
- Mental disorders are a major health condition affecting young people globally.
- About half of all common mental disorders emerge before the age of 18.
- Fifty-eight percent of mental disorders in adolescents go undetected and untreated.
- Young elite athletes show significant stigma toward mental health and negative attitudes toward help-seeking, including fear of the consequences of seeking help in an elite sport setting.
- Published research on mental health in elite sport has tripled in the past two decades. In contrast, only a few cross-sectional studies have studied elite athletes as young as 12 to 18 years old.
- 16.9% currently suffer from at least one mental health disorder, with a lifetime prevalence of 25.1%. Self-reported mental health symptoms among youth athletes range from 6.7% for anxiety to 9.5% for depression,
- Girls/women are significantly more likely than boys/men to report symptoms or be clinically assessed as having psychopathology.
- Young athletes who participate in individual sports report greater symptom severity than those who participate in team sports.
- There is an urgent need for solid research development on this topic.
- Young elite athletes may face a range of life circumstances that increase their risk of developing mental disorders, including developmental “milestones” such as puberty, parenting, navigating more complex interpersonal relationships, engaging with social media as “digital natives,” and negotiating aspects of their identity formation, such as gender, culture or sexuality. Added to sui are those related to placing emphasis on sports achievements.
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