Why the study?
The study was conducted to investigate racial-ethnic minority student-athletes' symptoms of distress, mental health service usage rates, and factors influencing mental health use.
Highlights a significant gap between high mental health needs and low service utilization among racial-ethnic minority student-athletes.
High unmet mental health needs among minority student-athletes warrant clinical attention; cross-sectional data leave open causal factors and intervention effects.
Objective: To investigate racial-ethnic minority student-athletes’ (REMSA) symptoms of distress (mental health need), mental health use (usage rate), and factors that influence mental health usage. Participants: There were 241 varsity athletes (African American = 108, Latinos = 66, Asian American= 67) from the American College Health Association Fall 2015 data set. Results: Seventy-eight percent of REMSA reported some form of mental health need and only 11% of these athletes in need reported using mental health services in the past year. Additionally, a binominal logistic regression was run to identify demographic and mental health predictors of mental health use. Higher stress (β = 1.58, OR = 3.49, p < .01) and having upperclassman standing (β = 1.07, OR = 3.91, p < .05) predicted service use for athletes. Conclusions: Mental health professionals should be aware of the high mental health need for REMSA and the low usage rate of mental health services.
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Ballesteros et al. (2018) studied this question.
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