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.

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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.