Understanding post-career adjustment in ex-professional ice hockey enforcers: Mental health

Abstract

The focus of the manuscript is on unique stressors and mental health challenges faced by professional ice hockey enforcers during their careers and how these stressors, when combined with a history of neurotrauma, may affect functioning post-career. It was hypothesised that participants would have several challenges with mental health caused by repetitive exposure to concussive and sub-concussive events consistent with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) symptomology. Ten retired professional ice hockey enforcers were interviewed to identify whether they experienced stressors or mental health challenges post-career. A mixed methods approach was utilised to develop descriptive and emergent themes and their frequencies. Participants reported a number of stressors unique to the enforcer role. Their response to these stressors was mediated by whether they embraced or tolerated/accepted the enforcer role. Two participants reported being diagnosed with depression with another stating that he had felt periods of sadness in the past. This pattern of results did not support the hypothesis. While there is some evidence to suggest that ex-professional hockey enforcers have challenges with mental health post-career, the prevalence is consistent with the estimates in the general population and with other elite athletes in other sports.

Keywords:

• anxiety
• depression
• chronic traumatic encephalopathy
• mixed methods
• structured interview
• ice hockey

Acknowledgement

The author would like to acknowledge the participants in this study for their time, willingness to be candid in their comments, and their motivation to improve the sport of hockey for future participants.

Declaration of interest: There was no financial interest or benefit associated with this research or the production of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study will be made available upon reasonable request from the corresponding author [MG]. The data are not publicly available because they contain information that could compromise the privacy of research participants. Misuse (intentional or unintentional) could compromise confidentiality and may negatively impact employment of the participants within their profession.

Notes

1. In hockey, a major penalty is given for more serious infractions. It differs from a minor penalty in that it is longer (five or 10 minutes instead of two) and that the player must remain in the penalty box for the entire duration of the penalty whereas minor penalties end after two minutes or when a goal is scored while the player is serving the penalty.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Michael Gaetz

Michael Gaetz have been actively engaged in research on concussion in sport for over 20 years. More recently, I have published theoretical work to explain the experiences of athletes following retirement from contact sport. This work is ongoing and will add to the literature on chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). My other current research interests are in how activity may affect quality of life in the elderly and the effects of weight cutting in combat sport. My clinical background is as a neurophysiologist working in the operating room using electrophysiologic procedures to monitor brain and spinal cord functioning during high-risk surgeries.