Mental Health Symptoms and Coping Strategies among Swiss Sport Coaches: A Cross-Sectional Online Survey

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

The aim of this study was to estimate the percentage of Swiss sport coaches screening positive for common mental health symptoms and to examine associations with coping strategies. A total of 232 Swiss coaches (77.6% men; Mage = 46.5 years) completed an anonymous online survey assessing depressive symptoms (PHQ-2), anxiety symptoms (GAD-2), alcohol-related problems (CAGE), psychological well-being (SWEMWBS), and coping strategies (Mini-COPE). We report screening-positive rates (with 95% confidence intervals), group comparisons, and multiple regression analyses. Overall, 11.3% screened positive for probable depression, 15.2% for probable anxiety, 9.2% for potential alcohol misuse, and 5.2% reported low well-being. Screening-positive rates did not differ significantly by gender, coaching level, or education. Older age was associated with fewer symptoms and higher well-being. Avoidant coping predicted more depressive and anxiety symptoms and lower well-being, whereas active and emotion-focused coping were positively associated with well-being. Coping explained 14–21% of the variance in depression, anxiety, and well-being, but little variance in alcohol-related problems (R² = .05). Longitudinal and intervention studies are required to clarify causality.