Dualistic model of passion and mental health in a sample of Canadian student-athletes

• Main Author: Dukic, Jelena
• Other Authors: Meldrum, John T.
• Language: English; en
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: Passion; Mental Health; Canadian Student-Athletes
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1828/3789

The incidence of mental health problems in student-athletes has garnered an increased interest and concern among researchers and university administrators; however, limited literature is available on Canadian student-athletes. The purpose of this study was to explore whether role conflict and passion were predictive of mental health constructs, (i.e., depression, anxiety, stress, and satisfaction with life) in a sample of Canadian student-athletes. The final sample consisted of 148 participants (105 females and 43 males) from five universities belonging to the Canada West Universities Athletic Association. Participants completed an online survey comprised of DASS (Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale), SWLS (Satisfaction with Life), DMP (Dualistic Model of Passion Scale) and sets of questions about personal characteristics and self-perceived conflict between their academic and athletic roles. Conflict was reported by 70% of males and 55% of females.In addition, 99.32% of surveyed student-athletes were passionate about sport, while 73.65% were passionate about school. Passion for sport and conflict were found to be correlated with mental health variables and statistically significant predictors of depression, anxiety and stress explaining 16%, 14.8% and 21.8% of variance in scores, while passion for school and conflict were significant predictors of satisfaction with life explaining 16.5% of score variance (p<0.05). Finally, males reported higher rate of “severe” depression (17% vs. 10%), anxiety (24% vs. 13%), and stress (17% vs. 15%) than females. These findings reveal relationships between investigated mental health constructs and passion and role conflict in student-athletes while adding to the limited research in a Canadian setting. === Graduate