Talking about depression and burnout is still a taboo subject nowadays - even in competitive and high-performance sports. According to a study carried out by the German Sports Aid Foundation in 2013, in which 1.154 athletes were questioned, one third of Germany's top athletes suffer from mental health conditions. 9.3 percent stated that they suffer from depression, 9.6 percent from eating disorders and 11.6 percent from burnout syndrome.
The Chair of Sports Psychology headed by Prof. Dr. Jürgen Beckmann and the Research Associates Dr. Insa Nixdorf and Dr. Raphael Nixdorf have been working in this field of research since 2009. “The mental health of competitive athletes is an important topic and a long-neglected problem”, explains Prof. Beckmann. The Chair published the much-cited study “Prevalence of depressive symptoms and correlating variables among German elite athletes” in the “Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology” as early as 2013. Over the years, a large number of subsequent publications on this topic followed in various professional journals. A new publication entitled “Psychological Predictors for Depression and Burnout Among German Junior Elite Athletes” was published in “frontiers in Psychology” in April 2020. The journal has an impact factor of 2.129.
“The topics of depression and burnout are still being stigmatised today, these themes do not fit the idealised role model image for athletes”, says Dr. Raphael Nixdorf. “However, this has not been the case in our studies to date. Within the scope of this research, we are in constant contact with athletes who are actually extremely keen and often thankful for the opportunity to talk about their problems. After all, mental health conditions are just as prevalent in competitive and high-performance sports as they are among the general population."
“In junior competitive sport in particular, the level of uncertainty about one's sporting future is much higher”, says Prof. Beckmann, assessing the problem. “In many sports, such as junior football, acquisition and transfer talks are held at the end of a year or season. This leads to young athletes constantly faced with the sword of Damocles hovering over them. Many of them cannot cope with such circumstances easily."
194 young athletes from the sporting disciplines of badminton, gymnastics, hockey, ice skating, mountain biking, athletics, football and swimming took part in the recently published study. Of these, 85 subjects completed all three test phases, which consisted of a preparation phase, a competition phase and a regeneration phase. The athletes filled out online questionnaires at three predetermined measuring points during the phases which were subsequently evaluated using a range of measures. The categories examined were depression, burnout, chronic stress, recovery, cohesion, perfectionism, attribution failure, dysfunctional attitudes and coping strategies.
“Our project's approach was to find out which psychological variables are involved in the development of depression and burnout”, says Dr. Raphael Nixdorf, outlining the research question. “Next, we oriented ourselves on the diathesis-stress model, a global theoretical assumption often used in psychology.” The development of a disease is attributed to the interaction between diathesis, i.e. the disposition for a disease, and stress in the form of adverse environmental factors. “Now we have adapted the model to competitive sports to determine what particular combination of diathesis and stressors can ultimately lead to burnout or depression.”
The research team found that the following psychological factors proved to be significant factors for depression diatheses: dysfunctional attitudes, resignation as a coping strategy and a lack of recovery time. Dysfunctional attitudes, resignation as a stress processing strategy and chronic stress were found to be significant factors for burnout diatheses.
Athletes can obtain more information regarding mental health on the application homepage www.nachwuxathleten.de, supported by the Federal Institute of Sport Science. Furthermore, visitors can also carry out a psychological self-test, where the current studies' findings have already been implemented. Dr. Nixdorf concludes by emphasising that “the application homepage and the self-tests are an essential contribution to the prevention of mental health conditions in young athletes.”
To the publication in the journal "frontiers in Psychology"
To the application homepage www.nachwuxathleten.de
To the homepage of the Chair of Sports Psychology
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Jürgen Beckmann
Chair of Sports Psychology
Georg-Brauchle-Ring 60/62
80992 München
phone: 089 289 24541
e-mail: Juergen.Beckmann(at)tum.de
Dr. Raphael Nixdorf
Chair of Sports Psychology
Georg-Brauchle-Ring 60/62
80992 München
phone: 089 289 24788
e-mail: Raphael.Nixdorf(at)tum.de
Dr. Insa Nixdorf
Chair of Sports Psychology
Georg-Brauchle-Ring 60/62
80992 München
phone: 089 289 24788
e-mail: Insa.Nixdorf(at)tum.de
Text: Romy Schwaiger
Photos: www.nachwuxathleten.de