Sport Differences In Resiliency Development Of Men’s NCAA Football And Basketball Athletes

Abstract

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has recently identified mental health as a primary health concern for student-athletes. Each sport contains its own unique stressors, which may require sport-specific stress reduction and resiliency-building techniques. PURPOSE: The purpose of this investigation was to identify the differences in stress impacts and resiliency in men’s NCAA football and basketball athletes. METHODS: Thirteen NCAA Division II men’s basketball athletes 32 NCAA Division II men’s football athletes were surveyed before and after the 2016-2017 competition season. The survey contained 35 questions, which were selected from the College Student Health Survey (Boynton Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN). The survey addressed aspects of physical health, drug and alcohol use, screen time, relationships, sleep, stress management, and resiliency. Post-season surveys were analyzed to determine differences between sports in stress management and resiliency. Independent t-tests were used to determine differences between survey question responses. Alpha levels were set at 0.05. RESULTS: Football athletes reported significantly better ability to respond to adversity (p<0.001), and withstand difficult situations (p<0.001). No significant difference existed between the sports in regards to the number of days their physical health (p=0.58) or mental health (p=0.95) was negatively impacted in the past 30 days. CONCLUSIONS: While no significant differences existed in the number of days in which mental or physical health was negatively impacted, significant differences were found in the football and basketball athletes’ perceived abilities to respond to stressful situations. Future research should investigate the development and efficacy of sport-specific resiliency-building techniques.