Mental health and professional women footballers: a scoping review

This scoping review aimed to synthesize literature on mental health and professional women footballers and provide recommendations for future research. Four databases were searched for studies meeting the inclusion criteria. After screening over 1,100 articles, 10 met the inclusion criteria. All studies used quantitative methods and self-report measures to examine mental ill-health symptoms, mainly depression, anxiety, and eating disorder symptoms. Most studies focused on depression (80%) and competition-related risk factors, such as playing position, competition level, injury status, and starting status. Few studies examined social, cultural, or contextual issues specific to elite women footballers, including contract instability, social media exposure, body image, motherhood, sexism, and discrimination. The exclusive use of quantitative methods has hindered our understanding of players’ lived experiences. As the game continues to grow and professionalize, research should incorporate qualitative approaches and more targeted questions to better capture the changing socio-cultural context surrounding professional women footballers.