Pressure for athletes

[fatherrowsbest]

Three female athletes committed suicide this year. Is it the pressures of keeping their GPA’s above the normal or fighting to keep their scholarships and the grueling pressure put on these students by their universities. It’s sad when you send your young athletes to school thinking it’s like high school and the parents don’t have a clue as to what happens in the college level. What can be done to help these athletes?

[sandor]

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl ... 587675.pdf

"Suicide in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Athletes: A 9-Year Analysis of the NCAA Resolutions Database"

College athletes suicide rate was 0.93 per 100,000 in the report, compared with the CDC reported overall college student suicide rate of 7.5 per 100,000. And college students as a whole have a lower rate of suicide than non-students of the same age.


This isn't to make light of any suicide, but rather to point out that statistically student athletes cope better than non-athletes.


For too long suicide & suicidal ideation have been taboo subjects (and most of mental health as well).
As my four year old told me "Its okay. We are allowed to feel our emotions."

[crewu]

Three female athletes committed suicide this year....

At your school? In your state? In the country? We're they rowers? Context helps.

[fatherrowsbest]

Three female athletes committed suicide this year....

At your school? In your state? In the country? We're they rowers? Context helps.

Didn’t think what school? What state? What country? What sport? Mattered I was asking about athletes in general.

Stanford, Indiana, JMU. California, Indiana, Virginia. All USA. Soccer, track and field, softball. Does this help?

[fullmetal]

Different, perhaps extenuating, circumstances in at least one case. That was beyond just obvious compounding of academic + athletic stress. It's hard for policymakers to ask hundreds of public and private university athletic departments to institute blanket reforms to reduce pressures related to performance, winning, and coaches' job security.

[sandor]

Different, perhaps extenuating, circumstances in at least one case. That was beyond just obvious compounding of academic + athletic stress. It's hard for policymakers to ask hundreds of public and private university athletic departments to institute blanket reforms to reduce pressures related to performance, winning, and coaches' job security.

Especially when the data shows they are much less at-risk than college students in general.


0.93 per 100,000 (college student athletes)
7.5 per 100,000 (college students)
14 per 100,000 (age-matched non-students)

[Cowbells123]

Different, perhaps extenuating, circumstances in at least one case. That was beyond just obvious compounding of academic + athletic stress. It's hard for policymakers to ask hundreds of public and private university athletic departments to institute blanket reforms to reduce pressures related to performance, winning, and coaches' job security.

Especially when the data shows they are much less at-risk than college students in general.


0.93 per 100,000 (college student athletes)
7.5 per 100,000 (college students)
14 per 100,000 (age-matched non-students)

I would argue that being a student athlete also provides for a community that, when functioning as it should, gives someone who may be struggling a support network. You are surrounded by individuals who share the same struggles and can be a sounding board. It is also an instant community of like minded individual who share a similar goal. That can be a godsend in those first few critical months of jumping into a new environment when first attending college.

Having said that there does seem to be evidence that some athletes, women in particular and sports with weight classes, are somewhat negatively affected with body image issues.
I’d be curious if any current athletes could speak to how admin and coaches deal with those issues in terms of suicide prevention.

[sandor]

Different, perhaps extenuating, circumstances in at least one case. That was beyond just obvious compounding of academic + athletic stress. It's hard for policymakers to ask hundreds of public and private university athletic departments to institute blanket reforms to reduce pressures related to performance, winning, and coaches' job security.

Especially when the data shows they are much less at-risk than college students in general.


0.93 per 100,000 (college student athletes)
7.5 per 100,000 (college students)
14 per 100,000 (age-matched non-students)

I would argue that being a student athlete also provides for a community that, when functioning as it should, gives someone who may be struggling a support network. You are surrounded by individuals who share the same struggles and can be a sounding board. It is also an instant community of like minded individual who share a similar goal. That can be a godsend in those first few critical months of jumping into a new environment when first attending college.

Having said that there does seem to be evidence that some athletes, women in particular and sports with weight classes, are somewhat negatively affected with body image issues.
I’d be curious if any current athletes could speak to how admin and coaches deal with those issues in terms of suicide prevention.

The paper i linked to above postulated just that:

(it is a free read on PubMed - thanks NIH & UW https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl ... 587675.pdf )

This study provides additional information that is consistent with these prior reports and suggests that athletic participation may confer a protective effect against suicide. The Durkeim theory of suicidality suggests that students are more tightly integrated into conventionally supportive social networks that buffer against psychological consequences of social isolation. This theory explains why suicide among college students is lower than in nonstudents of comparable age, implying that the social supports of the collegiate environment confer a protective effect against suicidal behaviors. Such an effect may be magnified for athletes, who are provided even greater opportunities to engage in structured social networks (ie, teams, regular activities with other athletes) that buffer against social isolation.

While ED & suicide have some crossover, i think for efforts of prevention, you need to keep them separate - We already know that athletes in general have higher rates of ED than the population at large.

[Cowbells123]

Different, perhaps extenuating, circumstances in at least one case. That was beyond just obvious compounding of academic + athletic stress. It's hard for policymakers to ask hundreds of public and private university athletic departments to institute blanket reforms to reduce pressures related to performance, winning, and coaches' job security.

Especially when the data shows they are much less at-risk than college students in general.


0.93 per 100,000 (college student athletes)
7.5 per 100,000 (college students)
14 per 100,000 (age-matched non-students)

I would argue that being a student athlete also provides for a community that, when functioning as it should, gives someone who may be struggling a support network. You are surrounded by individuals who share the same struggles and can be a sounding board. It is also an instant community of like minded individual who share a similar goal. That can be a godsend in those first few critical months of jumping into a new environment when first attending college.

Having said that there does seem to be evidence that some athletes, women in particular and sports with weight classes, are somewhat negatively affected with body image issues.
I’d be curious if any current athletes could speak to how admin and coaches deal with those issues in terms of suicide prevention.

The paper i linked to above postulated just that:

(it is a free read on PubMed - thanks NIH & UW https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl ... 587675.pdf )

This study provides additional information that is consistent with these prior reports and suggests that athletic participation may confer a protective effect against suicide. The Durkeim theory of suicidality suggests that students are more tightly integrated into conventionally supportive social networks that buffer against psychological consequences of social isolation. This theory explains why suicide among college students is lower than in nonstudents of comparable age, implying that the social supports of the collegiate environment confer a protective effect against suicidal behaviors. Such an effect may be magnified for athletes, who are provided even greater opportunities to engage in structured social networks (ie, teams, regular activities with other athletes) that buffer against social isolation.

While ED & suicide have some crossover, i think for efforts of prevention, you need to keep them separate - We already know that athletes in general have higher rates of ED than the population at large.

Very informative! Thanks

[JD]

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl ... 587675.pdf

"Suicide in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Athletes: A 9-Year Analysis of the NCAA Resolutions Database"

College athletes suicide rate was 0.93 per 100,000 in the report, compared with the CDC reported overall college student suicide rate of 7.5 per 100,000. And college students as a whole have a lower rate of suicide than non-students of the same age.

This isn't to make light of any suicide, but rather to point out that statistically student athletes cope better than non-athletes.

For too long suicide & suicidal ideation have been taboo subjects (and most of mental health as well).
As my four year old told me "Its okay. We are allowed to feel our emotions."

The rates of suicide attempts skew heavily toward women. But men are 3 to 4 times more likely to actually commit suicide.

“ In 2018, there were 22.8 male and 6.2 female deaths by suicide per 100,000 resident population in the United States. ”
https://www.statista.com/statistics/187 ... since-1950