By Scott Glassman, PsyD
Director of PCOM's Master of Applied Positive Psychology program
In recent years, elite athletes like Michael Phelps, Simone Biles, and Lane Johnson have talked openly about their mental health challenges, using their public platforms to destigmatize the experience of depression, anxiety, substance use, and other problems. These challenges affect student athletes as well.
Up to 30% of collegiate student-athletes have reported moderate to severe anxiety or depression symptoms, which is nearly twice the rate seen in general population of adults between the ages of 18 and 25.
The decision of professional athletes like Phelps and Biles to share their stories has encouraged help-seeking in a sports culture that prioritizes mental toughness. This kind of openness promises to create greater empathy, acceptance, and understanding around the unique emotional vulnerabilities that come with the pressure of competitive sports.
The mental health picture for athletes would be incomplete, however, without the enhancement perspective of positive psychology. By teaching strategies that promote subjective well-being in the context of the sport, we have an opportunity to lift levels of hope, meaning, and empowerment well above the baseline of “being okay.” This, in turn, creates a well-being “buffer zone” that can better absorb life stress.
A flourishing athlete then could be considered a proactive athlete, not only seeking help when needed, but taking steps each day to optimize their self-care, nurture positive emotional states, and recognize personal strengths. This may be especially important for young athletes who are still developing their cognitive-behavioral response styles as they navigate the interacting stressors of relationships, school, and sports.
As the father of a 14-year-old who is extremely hard on himself when he makes mistakes in sports, I see firsthand how self-criticism in an athlete can undermine mood, motivation, and hope. It even can lead to mistaken negative conclusions about one’s ability. Striking out once turns into the assumption “I’m not good at baseball.”
In our Happier U workshops, which are part of the Philadelphia Union Foundation’s new HeadFirst program, we give young athletes the tools to build a strengths-based mindset within a team setting. Early on, we focus on the importance of positive self-talk. Participants come up with encouraging self-statements in response to a mistake they’ve made on or off the field, like “next play” or “you’ve got this.” When they say it out loud and their teammates clap for them, as if they’ve just scored a goal, we think that they become more likely to make this adaptive cognitive choice at a difficult moment in the future as a result of that burst of social reinforcement.
In fact, we’ve found that 83% of participants in a pilot version of Happier U felt more positive about themselves after the program, most likely due to these self-affirmation shifts and positive connections with teammates around mindset.
Many athletes have learned to push on at all costs, which makes self-compassion seem incompatible with success. Self-compassion, defined as a combination of self-kindness, mindfulness, and the knowledge that we all face tough times, may actually improve performance. Researchers suggest that athletes high in self-compassion versus self-criticism respond better to stress, cope more effectively with emotionally difficult times, say they are more satisfied with their on-field performance, and have better motivation.
Still, a majority of competitive athletes in one study were not convinced that a compassionate approach was best for their performance and development. Some feared that it would lead to mediocrity. Additionally, the fear of self-compassion is associated with more psychological distress. Taken together, these findings point to a needed shift in how we think about what leads to success. In sports, you can be self-compassionate and a fierce competitor at the same time.
This is the reason we devote time to discussing self-kindness in Happier U, as well as the value of kindness expressed toward teammates, friends, parents, coaches, and teachers. One study reported that 1 in 3 youth athletes identify themselves as victims of bullying. In our workshops, we aim to reverse this trend by creating a safe, supportive, socially uplifting space where our young athletes acknowledge the good in each other. We help them identify specific acts of kindness they could show on the field, in school, and at home and set a goal of carrying them out.
Every athlete will connect with different combinations of positive psychology approaches to maximize well-being. There is no one-size-fits-all. However, there are certain strategies that stand out from our workshops as being particularly effective and helpful:
Mindfulness is the art of paying attention in the present moment to whatever is arising in one’s awareness. A source of anxiety for many athletes is worrying about outcomes and thinking about past performances that didn’t go well. Mindfulness of breathing or sensation (for example, focusing on the feeling of one’s feet on the ground), when practiced daily, can instill a stronger connection with the present moment and help athletes ground themselves when caught up in future or past concerns.
The more athletes have an awareness of their top personal strengths and think about how they are showing them throughout the week, not only in the context of sports, the more likely they will experience positive emotions. Taking the VIA character strength survey can reveal those strengths. We would recommend writing down examples at the end of the day or week to reinforce the awareness of when, where, and how they feel competent and good about themselves. Adding a progress review, a reflection on something they’ve improved, can make for an especially powerful self-esteem-boosting combination.
Evidence suggests that the use of positive imagery, like picturing scoring a goal, can enhance performance, motivation, and emotional well-being. In Happier U, we teach a 1-minute visualization exercise that is “portable” and can be done on the sideline or before a game without requiring a lot of time or quiet space.
Most athletes think of self-care as sleep, rest, nutrition, and proper training practices. In addition to the physical dimension, athletes may be well-served to broaden their perspective of self-care based on SAMHSA’s other seven dimensions of wellness and check in with themselves on where their fuel levels stand: social, emotional, intellectual, spiritual, occupational, environmental, and financial. They can use the "8 Dimensions of Wellness" personal assessment and create one or two goals to address areas in need of support. I would suggest adding a ninth dimension, which would be technology use. Teens, on average, spend many hours a day looking at screens, which can negatively impact mental health.
"... we’ve found that 83% of participants in a pilot version of Happier U felt more positive about themselves after the program ..."
It can be tempting to push too many solutions toward busy athletes who may not have the cognitive bandwidth to accommodate one more thing on their to-do list. That’s why, in Happier U, we like to create a menu of options and suggest our participants look for one or two strategies to try that they weren’t using before, which would not add a significant burden to their day. It’s best to go slow and start small. This can be as simple as coming up with a single encouraging self-statement to try at a practice or spending a couple minutes doing a progressive muscle relaxation exercise before a game. What’s most important is that they reflect on the effects of their effort, as any noticeable benefit will provide valuable motivation to continue being proactive about their well-being. If a strategy does not work well, we advise them to either troubleshoot it or try something different, encouraging a spirit of curiosity and self-exploration rather than perfectionism.
To learn more about the Happier U and HeadFirst program, presented by Independence Blue Cross and powered by PCOM, you can visit the Philadelphia Union Foundation website.
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