Keywords

college athletes, depression, mental health

Abstract

College athletes have different levels of success and failures throughout their college careers. These successes and failures can easily determine if an athlete is happy, can build up or break down self-esteem and confidence. In addition to student-athlete having many positive benefits like developing healthy lifestyle habits, increase happiness, increase self-esteem and self worth. The challenges that a college athlete faces are the benefits and hazards of physical activity, factors that lead to happiness or depression.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has reported an increase in suicide in student-athletes, causing it to be the fourth leading cause of death of college athletes, this has enhanced a focus on all student-athlete’s mental health. Wolanin and Hong stated “6.3% of student-athletes met the criteria for clinically significant depression and 24% had low moods considered “clinically relevant”. Student-athletes originally thought that they weren’t vulnerable to mental health problems because they have access to support systems, academic assistance, nutritious foods, proper sleep and daily exercise. However, there are many student-athletes who suffer from anxiety and depression and are not immune to mental health problems. One way of surveying an athlete's mental health is to assess their levels of subjective well-being. “Subjective well being (SWB) is the scientific term for happiness and life satisfaction” (Morris et al, 2020). This paper will review current research on the negative impacts of student-athletes. The focus of this paper will discuss how students often suffer from the negative side of athletics which can include stress in academics and performance as well as during in-season versus out of season, gender within team versus individual sport, and depression. The Negative Side of a