Olympic and Paralympic athletes’ perceptions of the Canadian sport environment and mental health

ABSTRACT

While athletes can experience poor mental health, researchers often focuses on the personal factors that impact an athlete’s mental health. Such a narrow focus neglects the broader contextual factors, such as involvement within sport systems, that can impact athlete mental health. Purpose: The purpose of this project was to understand how elite sport training environments in Canada impact the mental health of athletes. Methods: Team Canada Olympic and Paralympic athletes (n = 32) from team and individual sports (water polo, basketball, rowing, athletics, swimming, gymnastics, and field hockey) each participated in one semi-structured interview. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Results: Athletes identified environmental features that supported and detracted from their mental health, including: the provision of resources, social support, performance pressure, communication, language, and coaching. These features impacted athletes’ mental health experiences by influencing their perceptions of stigma, their perceptions of mental health as an organisational priority, their help-seeking behaviours, and the minimisation of their personal experiences. Discussion: Uncertainty and a lack of control were common features of the environment contributing to athletes’ perceptions of stress and negatively impacted their wellbeing, as did a lack of trust in support providers and negative coaching practices. While some environmental features impacted athletes’ mental health directly, many had an indirect impact on athletes’ mental health (e.g. led to the minimisation of personal mental health challenges). Identifying ways to enhance athlete autonomy and educate coaches about mental health and supportive coaching practices are important directions for future research and practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Elite athlete
• athlete well-being
• sport organisation
• organisational stressor
• high-performance sport

Acknowledgement

This research was funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Doctoral Fellowship, a Sport Canada Sport Participation Research Initiative Award, and a University of Toronto Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education SSHRC Institutional Grant.

Disclosure statement

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

Supplemental Material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/2159676X.2023.2187443.

Notes

1. There are various definitions of mental health and mental disorder, and mental health involves more than just the absence of disease or disorder; instead, it refers to a state where an individual can experience self-esteem, mastery, and is able to maintain relationships with other people (Link and Phelan 2017; World Health Organization 2018). In this paper, we use the term ‘poor mental health’ to include conditions of mental illness or mental disorder, as well as conditions where individuals are experiencing decreased mental health (e.g. decreased state of well-being).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Z. A. Poucher

Dr. Z. A. Poucher, Research focuses on the mental health of elite athletes. She is interested in understanding the effect that places and spaces have on people's wellbeing.

K. A. Tamminen

Dr. K. A. Tamminen, Research on sport psychology examines topics related to mental health and well-being in sport, including a specific focus on stress, coping, and emotion, and young athletes’ experiences in sport. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on sport and exercise psychology, stress and coping, and qualitative research methods. She is an Editor-in-Chief for the journal Psychology of Sport and Exercise and she is the Past President of the Canadian Society for Psychomotor Learning and Sport Psychology (SCAPPS).

G. Kerr

Dr. G. Kerr, is an internationally renowned researcher, full professor and senior academic leader from the University of Toronto. Dr. Kerr is a prominent Canadian sports leader and scholar. Her research focuses on women in maltreatment in sport, coaching, and coach education. Her work is guided by a vision that sport should be healthy and fulfilling for all. She led the production of the 2019 national report of maltreatment, bullying and gender-based violence among 1,000 current and former Canadian national team athletes. For over twenty years, Dr. Kerr has advised Canadian and international sports bodies on the development and implementation of safe sport policies.