Modifiable risk factors of female athlete psychological resilience and mental health: A longitudinal investigation.

This study aimed to identify potential modifiable risk factors that predict psychological resilience in female athletes and evaluate how well resilience predicts outcomes over time in this group.Three hundred ninety-three female athletes completed demographics and selfreport measures at baseline and at least one (3-, 6-, and/or 12-month) follow-up assessment.The Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale 10 and Brief Resilience Scale measured resilience.Hypothesized upstream risk factors included sleep, emotion dysregulation, experiential avoidance, social support, and intolerance of uncertainty.Hypothesized downstream outcomes of low resilience included posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and high perceived stress.Greater emotion regulation difficulties, experiential avoidance, intolerance of uncertainty, social support, and sleep difficulties each significantly longitudinally predicted decreases in resilience over 12 months.Resilience significantly predicted decreases in prevalence of high perceived stress, depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder over 12 months.Resilience may be a useful focus of intervention.Difficulties with emotion regulation, experiential avoidance, intolerance of uncertainty, social support, and sleep difficulties are identified as modifiable risk factors and may be targeted in future interventions to enhance resilience in female athletes.