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Student Athlete Mental Health Statistics

Joshua
2 hours ago
6 min read

About a third of elite athletes report symptoms of anxiety or depression: 33.6% across 22 studies, according to a 2019 meta-analysis in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. Student athletes show the same strain. In the NCAA's 2022–23 survey of more than 23,000 athletes, 35% of those in women's sports said they felt mentally exhausted constantly or most every day, more than double the 16% in men's sports.


These are the numbers behind athlete mental health, gathered from peer-reviewed research and large research surveys only. Each figure keeps its population, sample and source, listed at the bottom of the page. Most measure symptoms on screening questionnaires, not clinical diagnoses, which is why studies of different groups land on different numbers.


Report Highlights


  • 33.6% of current elite athletes report symptoms of anxiety or depression (meta-analysis of 22 studies).

  • 26.4% of former elite athletes report the same symptoms after leaving the sport.

  • 26.4% of current elite athletes report symptoms of sleep disturbance.

  • 23.7% of Division I college athletes in one US study showed clinically relevant depressive symptoms; female athletes had 1.84 times the risk of male athletes.

  • 35% of NCAA women's sports athletes felt mentally exhausted constantly or most every day in 2022–23, against 16% in men's sports.

  • 47% of NCAA athletes said in Fall 2021 that they would feel comfortable personally seeking support from a mental health provider on campus.

  • 20.5% of 488 Malaysian athletes reported severe to extremely severe anxiety during the 2020 Movement Control Order.


What Percentage Of Athletes Struggle With Mental Health?


About a third of elite athletes struggle with mental health: a 2019 meta-analysis found 33.6% reported symptoms of anxiety or depression.


That figure pools 22 studies of current elite athletes. The same review measured other symptoms too:


Symptom

Current elite athletes

Former elite athletes

Anxiety or depression

33.6%

26.4%

Sleep disturbance

26.4%

20.9%

Distress

19.6%

15.8%

Alcohol misuse

18.8%

21.1%


Source: Gouttebarge et al., 2019. Meta-analyses of 2,895 to 5,555 current elite athletes (22 studies) and 1,579 to 1,686 former elite athletes (15 studies).


Two cautions travel with these numbers. They are self-reported symptoms, not diagnoses. And the studies vary widely in sport, country and questionnaire, so the pooled figure is an average across very different groups. The International Olympic Committee's 2026 consensus statement makes the same point about anxiety: the share of elite athletes scoring "moderate to severe" on the GAD-7 anxiety scale ranges from 1.2% to 29.5% across studies.


The 33.6% figure counts self-reported symptoms of anxiety or depression. It is not a count of diagnoses, and it does not describe a "mental health crisis."


How Many Student Athletes Struggle With Mental Health?


A tired student athlete in a hijab and training kit revising from a textbook on a courtside bench after practice, her racket beside her

Many student athletes struggle with mental health: in the NCAA's 2022–23 survey of more than 23,000 athletes, 35% in women's sports and 16% in men's sports felt mentally exhausted constantly or most every day.


The NCAA has surveyed its athletes repeatedly since 2020. Its Fall 2021 study of 9,808 athletes found concerns experienced within the last month running 1.5 to 2 times higher, in most instances, than NCAA athletes had historically reported before 2020. The share reporting each feeling "constantly or most every day":


Feeling

Men's sports

Women's sports

Mentally exhausted

22%

38%

Overwhelming anxiety

12%

29%

Things were hopeless

6%

10%

So depressed it was difficult to function

6%

9%

Sleep difficulties

19%

28%


Source: NCAA Student-Athlete Well-Being Study, Fall 2021 (n = 9,808).


By 2022–23 the numbers had eased but remained high. Between Fall 2021 and 2022–23, feeling overwhelmed fell from 25% to 17% in men's sports and from 47% to 44% in women's sports; mental exhaustion fell from 22% to 16% and from 38% to 35%.


Outside the NCAA's own surveys, a study of 465 Division I athletes at one US university found 23.7% had clinically relevant depressive symptoms on the CES-D questionnaire, and 6.3% had moderate to severe symptoms.


Do Student Athletes Seek Help For Mental Health?


A teenage field hockey player smiling as she talks with her coach on the side of a school pitch after training

Fewer than half of student athletes said they would be comfortable seeking help: in Fall 2021, only 47% of NCAA athletes felt they would be comfortable personally seeking support from a mental health provider on campus. In 2022–23 the NCAA reported about 50%.


Comfort varies by who the athlete would talk to. In 2022–23, 54% of athletes in men's sports and 40% in women's sports said they would feel comfortable discussing mental health with their coaches, eight to nine points below pre-pandemic levels.


A figure that circulates widely says only 10% of student athletes with symptoms seek help, against 30% of other students. It is attributed to University of Michigan researcher Daniel Eisenberg, but we could not trace it to a published study or dataset, so it is not included in our figures.


In our coaching work, the first call about a young athlete usually comes from someone else. By our own practice estimate, roughly four in five first contacts about young athletes come from a parent rather than the athlete. So the first account of the problem is often the parent's, which is why we also ask the athlete for theirs.


Athlete Mental Health Statistics By Gender


Female athletes report more symptoms than male athletes in almost every measure:


  • Depression: female Division I athletes had 1.84 times the risk of male athletes of clinically relevant depressive symptoms (Wolanin et al., 2016).

  • Exhaustion: 35% of women's sports athletes against 16% of men's sports athletes felt mentally exhausted constantly or most every day in 2022–23 (NCAA).

  • Anxiety: 29% against 12% reported overwhelming anxiety constantly or most every day in Fall 2021 (NCAA), and the IOC's 2026 consensus statement notes female elite athletes score higher on the GAD-7 anxiety scale than males.

  • Talking to coaches: 40% of women's sports athletes would feel comfortable discussing mental health with a coach, against 54% in men's sports (NCAA, 2022–23).


How Common Are Sleep Problems In Athletes?


A bedside table at night with a phone face down, a water bottle and a training journal, a kitbag on the floor beside the bed

Sleep problems are common in athletes: about one in four elite athletes (26.4%) report symptoms of sleep disturbance.


  • 26.4% of current and 20.9% of former elite athletes reported sleep disturbance (Gouttebarge et al., 2019).

  • 28% of 817 Japanese Asian Games candidates scored above the clinical cut-off on the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (Hoshikawa et al., 2018).

  • 28% of NCAA women's sports athletes and 19% of men's sports athletes reported sleep difficulties constantly or most every day (NCAA, Fall 2021).


Sleep sits where performance and well-being meet. An athlete who isn't sleeping recovers slower, and a mind under pressure sleeps worse, so the two problems feed each other.


Athlete Mental Health Research In Malaysia


Local data is thin. The largest published study we found surveyed 488 Malaysian athletes (224 male, 264 female) during the COVID-19 Movement Control Order and reported:


  • 20.5% with severe to extremely severe anxiety

  • 10% with severe to extremely severe depression

  • 7.2% with severe to extremely severe stress


Source: Sut Txi et al., 2022, Annals of Applied Sport Science (DASS-21 and K10 questionnaires).


Those figures come from a lockdown, when training and competition stopped, so they are not a baseline for normal seasons. We found no study that measures athlete mental health across Malaysian school, state and national levels outside that period.


What we see in practice fits the international picture. The pressure often arrives with representation: the step from training to wearing a school, state or national jersey turns a routine performance into a responsibility. And performance work rarely sticks when a well-being problem sits underneath it. When several sessions bring no visible change, the cause is usually a well-being issue no one has addressed yet. When low mood doesn't lift after a few weeks, bring in a registered clinical psychologist or a registered counsellor. That work sits outside performance coaching.


How These Statistics Were Compiled


  • Sources: only peer-reviewed studies, consensus statements and research-body surveys. News articles and blogs were used only to trace a figure back to its original.

  • Context kept: each figure is reported with its population, sample size and questionnaire, because a prevalence figure means little without them.

  • Corrections: where a quoted number differs from its source, we report the source's figure. Where we could not find a source (the "10% seek help" figure), we leave it out.

  • Updates: we review this page every year, and when the NCAA or the IOC publishes new data.


If you or an athlete you know is in crisis, call Talian Kasih on 15999 or contact the Befrienders.


Related Reading From Mind Gap



Sources


  1. Gouttebarge V, Castaldelli-Maia JM, Gorczynski P, et al. (2019). Occurrence of mental health symptoms and disorders in current and former elite athletes: a systematic review and meta-analysis. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 53(11), 700–706. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2019-100671

  2. Reardon CL, Gouttebarge V, Kroshus-Havril E, et al. (2026). Mental health in elite athletes: International Olympic Committee consensus statement (2026). British Journal of Sports Medicine, 60, 1083–1130. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2025-111514

  3. Wolanin A, Hong E, Marks D, Panchoo K, Gross M. (2016). Prevalence of clinically elevated depressive symptoms in college athletes and differences by gender and sport. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 50(3), 167–171. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2015-095756

  4. Hoshikawa M, Uchida S, Hirano Y. (2018). A subjective assessment of the prevalence and factors associated with poor sleep quality amongst elite Japanese athletes. Sports Medicine - Open, 4, 10. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40798-018-0122-7

  5. NCAA Research. (2022). NCAA Student-Athlete Well-Being Study (Fall 2021). https://ncaaorg.s3.amazonaws.com/research/other/2020/2022RES_NCAA-SA-Well-BeingSurveyPPT.pdf

  6. NCAA. (13 December 2023). Student-athletes report fewer mental health concerns. http://www.ncaa.org/media-center-student-athletes-report-fewer-mental-health-concerns/

  7. NCAA Research. (December 2023). Current Findings on Student-Athlete Mental Health: NCAA Student-Athlete Health and Wellness Study (2022–23, n = 23,272). https://ncaaorg.s3.amazonaws.com/research/wellness/Dec2023RES_HW-MentalHealthRelease.pdf

  8. Sut Txi MR, Ishak A, Mat Salleh FN, Pau K, Anuar Hashim H. (2022). The prevalence of emotional distress among athletes during COVID-19 Movement Control Order period in Malaysia. Annals of Applied Sport Science, 10(2). http://aassjournal.com/article-1-1018-en.html

 
 
 

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