Thirteenth International Conference on Sport & Society

Abstract

Research has shown that an universal athletic identity is associated with better mental health outcomes. However, few efforts have been done to disentangle possible dimensions of athletic identity and their association with depressive symptoms, which was addressed in this study. Secondary data was acquired from Athletic Involvement Study of Students in a Northeastern University in the United States (Miller, 2006). Undergraduate students (N = 577) participated in a survey which asked for their sports engagement and perception of sports. Participants ranged from 18 to 24 years old, with 52% identified as male. A total of 31 items presented participants with a statement of sport related self description (5-point scale, 1=doesn’t describe me at all, 5=describes me extremely well). Ten items assessed participants’ depressive symptoms (e.g., “could not get going”) on 4-point scales. Principal component analysis on athletic identity items detected five dimensions: sports as identifier (11 items; e.g., others see me in terms of sports), social engagement (6 items, e.g., encouragement from others), competition driven (6 items, e.g., most fun when I win), appearance driven (5 items, e.g., look physically fit), and goal driven (3 items, e.g., reach personal goals). Five athletic identity dimensions were then regressed on participants’ depressive symptom score. Results show that the more participants used sports as their identifier, the more likely they exhibited depressive symptoms. These results illustrate that athletic identity is a multidimensional construct and needs to be understood with nuance in terms of mental health.