Abstract
Elite young athletes have to cope with multiple psychological demands such as training volume, mental and physical fatigue, spatial separation of family and friends or time management problems may lead to reduced mental and physical recovery. While normative data regarding symptoms of anxiety and depression for the general population is available (Hinz and Brähler, 2011), hardly any information exists for adolescents in general and young athletes in particular. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess overall symptoms of anxiety and depression in young athletes as well as possible sex differences. The survey was carried out within the scope of the study “Resistance Training in Young Athletes” (KINGS-Study). Between August 2015 and September 2016, 326 young athletes aged (mean ± SD) 14.3 ± 1.6 years completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HAD Scale). Regarding the analysis of age on the anxiety and depression subscales, age groups were classified as follows: late childhood (12–14 years) and late adolescence (15–18 years). The participating young athletes were recruited from Olympic weight lifting, handball, judo, track and field athletics, boxing, soccer, gymnastics, ice speed skating, volleyball, and rowing. Anxiety and depression scores were (mean ± SD) 4.3 ± 3.0 and 2.8 ± 2.9, respectively. In the subscale anxiety, 22 cases (6.7%) showed subclinical scores and 11 cases (3.4%) showed clinical relevant score values. When analyzing the depression subscale, 31 cases (9.5%) showed subclinical score values and 12 cases (3.7%) showed clinically important values. No significant differences were found between male and female athletes (p ≥ 0.05). No statistically significant differences in the HADS scores were found between male athletes of late childhood and late adolescents (p ≥ 0.05). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report describing questionnaire based indicators of symptoms of anxiety and depression in young athletes. Our data implies the need for sports medical as well as sports psychiatric support for young athletes. In addition, our results demonstrated that the chronological classification concerning age did not influence HAD Scale outcomes. Future research should focus on sports medical and sports psychiatric interventional approaches with the goal to prevent anxiety and depression as well as teaching coping strategies to young athletes.
Highlights
During stressful situations, the body is threatened by external or internal forces that may lead to an alteration of its homeostasis
70% of the young athletes are within a score range of 6, 80% are at or below a score of 7, 90% of athletes are at or below a score of 8.5, 95% are at or below a score of 10, and 98% of the athletes are at or below a score of 12 on the anxiety scale
Age: Overall, our findings revealed that by trend (MannWhitney-U Test, p = 0.07), late childhood athletes had a slightly lower mean anxiety score (4.2 ± 3.2) than late adolescent athletes (4.5 ± 2.8)
Summary
The body is threatened by external or internal forces that may lead to an alteration of its homeostasis. Intercollegiate student-athletes have higher anxiety symptom rates of up to 37% (Storch et al, 2005) but similar rates of depressive symptoms (21%) (Yang et al, 2007) These variabilities might be explained by methodological differences such as application of different questionnaire, or differences in time of testing during a training season for example training or competition phase. Likely reasons for these high rates are the elevated risk of injuries, performance plateaus or decrements or an approaching retirement form elite sports (Rice et al, 2016) This could explain the 37% prevalence rate of anxiety symptoms in college studentathletes. It has been suggested that transition stages in the athletic career are accompanied by increased stress levels and emotional imbalances All these factors contribute to the higher anxiety symptom rates described in college student-athletes
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