Collegiate student-athlete mental health symptom trajectories across a competitive season: do training load and resilience matter?

Student-athlete mental health is an important and complex issue necessitating examination of variables that may explain changes in key outcomes during training and competition periods. Further, in-season changes in mental health may be predicted by student-athlete training load or psychological resilience and should be examined further. This longitudinal study assessed changes in mental health symptoms of depression, anxiety, and subjective well-being across a competitive season and examined potential interactive effects of resilience and training load in predicting mental health symptoms over time. Participants were 160 NCAA Division I student-athletes between 18-23 years old (mean age = 19.9 +/- 1.3). We measured mental health symptoms and resilience at 3 timepoints (across 12 weeks) throughout a competitive season with psychometric questionnaires. Daily training loads were also collected and then used to calculate average acute to chronic workload ratios (ACWR). Positive mental health symptoms did not change across student-athletes; whereas, negative symptoms changed over time with the highest levels of symptoms occurring in the middle of the season. Resilience was positively associated with subjective well-being and negatively associated with anxiety and depression across the study period. ACWR was not associated with depression or anxiety symptom scores but a significant interaction between ACWR and resilience was found for subjective well-being symptoms. Specifically, resilience buffered against ACWR's negative effect on positive mental health. Results suggest the importance of student-athlete resilience during the competition season and evaluation of depression and anxiety at pre-season with mid-season re-evaluation.