The role of parents in supporting youth athlete help-seeking for mental health concerns: a scoping review

Young athletes are exposed to a number of potential challenges, such as injury, competitive pressure from coaches and parents, and engaging in risky behaviors. Coaches have difficulty detecting and monitoring athletes’ mental health, thus parents may play an important role in addressing athletes’ help-seeking intentions and behaviors. The purpose of this review was to synthesize and evaluate the existing literature on parents’ roles in facilitating help-seeking for mental health concerns among youth athletes. Following PRISMA-ScR guidelines, we conducted a systematic search using four databases to locate literature that report parents’ role in young athletes’ mental health concerns. A total of 2055 articles were retrieved and screened across three separate searches, and the resulting 18 included articles were then subject to data extraction and thematic analysis. Included articles predominantly explored topics related to mental health topics such as social support. Intervention studies suggest parents as a viable option as primary help-seeking agents for young athletes. Articles seldomly used theory or guiding frameworks to support their investigations. The limited scope and volume of included articles highlight the nascency of the field, while also highlighting an opportunity to leverage currently available frameworks in developmental psychology to study parental help-seeking with youth athletes.