College Athletes and Mental Health: How Gender, Year, Sleep, Injury, and Social Support Affect Anxiety

College Athletes and Mental Health: How Gender, Year, Sleep, Injury, and Social Support Affect Anxiety

This study aimed to identify the effects of gender, year, sleep, injury, and social support on anxiety in college athletes. Participants were college athletes at a small, private Christian college in a midwestern community. It was hypothesized that female college athletes would experience greater levels of anxiety than male college athletes, and that upperclassmen college athletes would experience greater levels of anxiety than underclassmen college athletes. It was also predicted that the more sleep an athlete gets, the lower levels of anxiety they will experience. The final two hypotheses stated that athletes who experience injury and/or worry about the effects of injury will have higher levels of anxiety, as well as athletes who receive less social support after injury will have higher levels of anxiety. Participants completed a short demographic questionnaire, and then were asked to complete three surveys. An independent samples t-test revealed gender to be a significant predictor of anxiety in college athletes. A Pearson product-moment correlation revealed injury to be a significant predictor of anxiety in college athletes, as well as a lack of social support to be a significant predictor of anxiety in college athletes. Year in school and sleep were not significant predictors of anxiety in college athletes when tested separately, but the final model which included all five variables could predict 45% of the variation in anxiety scores. Implication and limitations, as well as suggestions for further research are discussed.