Author(s): BONS, L., SHEA, E., BEAN, C., GORCYNSKI, P., VELLA, S., SULLIVAN, P., Institution: BROCK UNIVERSITY, Country: CANADA, Abstract-ID: 2462

With the growing recognition of the distinction between mental health and mental illness, universities have invested in resources aimed at supporting and protecting student-athletes' mental health. This approach, known as mental health asset building, has emerged in response to both rising performance-related stress and the need to proactively strengthen mental health literacy, help-seeking behaviours, and reduce stigma around mental health. However, we cannot improve what we do not measure. Given the baseline of student-athletes mental health assets is unknown, it is impossible to quantifiably evaluate the effectiveness, needs, and progress of these initiatives. This study aimed to develop a national baseline of student-athletes’ mental health assets. Further, given known mental health disparities faced by minority groups, including race (Gorczynski et al., 2017), sexual orientation (Anchuri et al., 2020), and sex (Kew et al., 2025), this study specifically aims to investigate potential disparities in mental health assets among these groups.

To develop this baseline, we measured mental health assets of mental health literacy, self-stigma, and mental health help-seeking alongside demographic information including age, sex, race and sexual orientation to explore potential disparities among minority groups. Preliminary analyses (N = 85; data collection ongoing) found self-stigma was significantly higher for male than female student-athletes, and that non-heterosexual athletes reported higher professional help-seeking intentions for suicidality than heterosexual athletes. These preliminary results (a) offer early insights toward developing a national baseline of mental health assets among student-athletes, (b) highlight the persistent silence surrounding mental health among male student-athletes, reinforcing continued efforts to reduce stigma, and (c) propel novel and critical insight through both significant and theoretically meaningful nonsignificant findings, underscoring the complexity of the mental health asset landscape for sexual minority and racialized student-athletes.

References

Anchuri, K., Davoren, A. K., Shanahan, A., Torres, M., & Wilcox, H. C. (2020). Nonsuicidal self-injury, suicidal ideation, and suicide attempt among collegiate athletes: Findings from the National College Health Assessment. Journal of American College Health, 68(8), 815–823. https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2019.1616743

Gorczynski, P. F., Coyle, M., & Gibson, K. (2017). Depressive symptoms in high-performance athletes and non-athletes: a comparative meta-analysis. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 51(18), 1348. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2016-096455

Kew, M. E., Dave, U., Marmor, W., Olsen, R., Jivanelli, B., Tsai, S. H. L., Kuo, L. T., & Ling, D. I. (2025). Sex Differences in Mental Health Symptoms in Elite Athletes: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Sports health, 17(4), 732–743. https://doi.org/10.1177/19417381241264491