Stress of the Off-Season May Be Greater for the Student-Athlete than during Competition: A Pilot Study

Abstract

We assessed 16 student-athletes in their first year of college on several dimen-sions, including severity of psychological and physical symptoms, mental health upset, academic concerns, suicidal tendencies, depressive outlook, an-xiety and tension, attention difficulties, and alcohol abuse. We assessed half during their sports' competition season and half during their off-season. Re-sults pointed to increased perceived stress during the down time of off season. It may be that for student-athletes, the structure of competition season offsets the stress of competition, such that when the structure is removed or lessened, perceived stress increases. Implications of these data are discussed as well as plans for developing follow-up studies.