Student Athletes and Mental Health: A Social Identity Theory Perspective

Student athletes face unique stressors in comparison to both non-athlete students, and professional athletes. In light of mental health concerns faced by an increasing number of young adults, we examine the distinctive experiences of student athletes, and how these play a role in mental health issues faced by student athletes. We conducted focus groups with student athletes at two Division I institutions in the United States (n = 25). We analyzed our data through the lens of Social Identity Theory. Our findings highlighted the role of each component of the social identity theory—how they viewed themselves as different from non-athlete students (social categorization and social identification), but still competed with members of their in-groups (social comparison). This social competition suggests a singular experience of concurrently belonging to both in-groups and out-groups simultaneously, thus playing a role in their mental health.