Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic created stressors that raised the likelihood of elite athletes experiencing mental health problems. Understanding how individual traits promote resilience is key to offering treatments specific to this population. This prospective study explores the relationship between mindfulness skills, resilience, and athletic identity on anxiety and depression. The initial assessment was during the first UK lockdown April–May 2020 (T1), and the second during the return to competition July-August 2020 (T2). The sample was 160 elite rugby players. Measures included: Personal Health Questionnaire-9, General Anxiety Disorder-7, Cognitive Affective Mindfulness Scale, Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, and Athletic Identity Measurement. The prevalence of anxiety and depression was profiled with descriptive statistics, and relationships between variables with bi-variate correlations and forward stepwise regression modelling. Depression decreased significantly between lock down (T1) and return to competition (T2) (MT1 = 4.20, MT2 = 3.24, p < 0.01), with no significant change in anxiety. Significant correlations were found between mindfulness, resilience, and anxiety and depression (≤0.001). Regression showed that mindfulness (T1) predicted lower anxiety and depression during the return to competition (T2) after controlling for baseline mental health symptoms. Returning to competition after lockdown was associated with a reduction in depression but not anxiety. Mindfulness skills potentially confer protection against anxiety and depression.
Highlights
Anxiety and depression represent a considerable health burden in the general population, and are the leading causes of mental health related diseases globally [1]
The aims of this study were: (1) to describe the prevalence of symptoms of anxiety and depression in elite rugby players during COVID-19 lockdown and when returning to competition; (2) to test whether levels of trait mindfulness, resilience, and athletic identity were associated with anxiety and depressive symptomatology during lockdown; and (3) to evaluate if levels of trait mindfulness, resilience, and athletic identity during lockdown predict symptoms of anxiety and depression after lockdown when returning to competition
To understand the prevalence of symptoms of anxiety and depression at the two different stages of the beginning of the COVID19 pandemic, we described the percentage of individuals who scored: ≥5, ≥10, ≥15, and ≥20 on the General Anxiety Disorder-7 Questionnaire (GAD7) and Personal Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ9) [32,33]
Summary
Anxiety and depression represent a considerable health burden in the general population, and are the leading causes of mental health related diseases globally [1]. In the UK, during the first six months of the pandemic, the mental health of most adults remained close to pre-pandemic levels [4], but younger adults were found to be at greater risk of anxiety and depression [5]. Elite athletes are predominantly younger adults, and their careers overlap with the age range most commonly associated with the development of mental health disorders [6]. During times of increased stress, athletes have been shown to have higher rates of mental health disorders than the general population [7]
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