The Prevalence of Mental Ill Health in Elite Counter-Strike Athletes

Abstract

The present study provides a unique contribution to the literature by offering the first study to examine the prevalence of mental ill health and mental well-being of professional Counter-Strike athletes. The sample consisted of 51 current Counter-Strike professionals ( M age = 23.22, SD = 4.7 years; male = 48, female = 3) representing 17.1% of all registered Counter-Strike professionals. An online questionnaire was administered via Qualtrics. We found that one quarter of our sample reported moderately severe (15.7%) and severe (9.8%) symptoms of depression using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9, over three quarters (82.4%) reported symptoms of anxiety/depression using the General Health Questionnaire—short form-12, over half (54.9%) reported psychological distress using the distress screener, and nearly three quarters (72.5%) reported low mental well-being using the Short Warwick–Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale. Our findings suggest that greater importance should be placed on screening and intervention support by both performance and clinical practitioners to facilitate mental health within the esports ecosystem.