Mental health symptoms and disorders are common among elite athletes, may have sport related manifestations within this population and impair performance. Mental health cannot be separated from physical health, as evidenced by mental health symptoms and disorders increasing the risk of physical injury and delaying subsequent recovery. There are no evidence or consensus based guidelines for diagnosis and management of mental health symptoms and disorders in elite athletes. Diagnosis must differentiate character traits particular to elite athletes from psychosocial maladaptations.Management strategies should address all contributors to mental health symptoms and consider biopsychosocial factors relevant to athletes to maximise benefit and minimise harm. Management must involve both treatment of affected individual athletes and optimising environments in which all elite athletes train and compete. To advance a more standardised, evidence based approach to mental health symptoms and disorders in elite athletes, an International Olympic Committee Consensus Work Group critically evaluated the current state of science and provided recommendations.

/pdf/mental-health-in-elite-athletes-international-olympic-2thfae2q5f.pdf

Mental health in elite athletes: International Olympic Committee consensus statement (2019).

Aim The aim of this systematic review was to investigate the perceived barriers and facilitators to physical activity among children with disability. Methods 10 electronic databases were searched from the earliest time available to September 2010 to identify relevant articles. Articles were included if they examined the barriers or facilitators to physical activity for children with disability and were written in English. Articles were excluded if they included children with an acute, transient or chronic medical condition, examined sedentary leisure activities, or societal participation in general. Two reviewers independently assessed the search yields, extracted the data and assessed trial quality. Data were analysed descriptively. Results 14 articles met the inclusion criteria. Barriers included lack of knowledge and skills, the child9s preferences, fear, parental behaviour, negative attitudes to disability, inadequate facilities, lack of transport, programmes and staff capacity, and cost. Facilitators included the child9s desire to be active, practising skills, involvement of peers, family support, accessible facilities, proximity of location, better opportunities, skilled staff and information. Conclusion Personal, social, environmental, and policy and programme-related barriers and facilitators influence the amount of activity children with disability undertake. The barriers to physical activity have been studied more comprehensively than the facilitators.

https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/bjsports/46/14/989.full.pdf?46%2F14%2F989=

Perceived barriers and facilitators to physical activity for children with disability: a systematic review

Regular physical activity plays a crucial role in health maintenance and disease prevention. However, excessive exercise has the potential to have adverse effects on both physical and mental health. The scholastic and empirical discussion of excessive physical activity focuses on obsessive and compulsive exercising, and uses several labels. However, in this review, we argue that the most appropriate term for this phenomenon is exercise addiction, emphasizing that excessive physical exercise fits the typical and most common characteristics of behavioral addictions. The aim of this review is to synthesize the current knowledge on symptomology, diagnosis, epidemiology, and etiology of exercise addiction.

/pdf/exercise-addiction-symptoms-diagnosis-epidemiology-and-2wnywlcfba.pdf

Exercise Addiction: Symptoms, Diagnosis, Epidemiology, and Etiology

Motivational Styles in Everyday Life offers a definitive statement on reversal theory and sheds light on the paradoxes of risk taking, addiction, rebelliousness, and other areas of motivation, emotion, and personality. This articulate, concise, and persuasive volume is based on the understanding that people are essentially changeable and move between different "motivational styles" in the course of daily life. Written by primary proponents of reversal theory, this important book will have broad implications for understanding both normal and pathological human behavior.

Motivational styles in everyday life: A guide to reversal theory.

Objective: The authors assessed the prevalence of pathogenic eating and weight-control behaviors among female college athletes, using a psychometrically valid measure. Participants: Participants were 204 college athletes (M age = 20.16 years, SD = 1.31 years) from 17 sports at 3 universities. On average, they participated in their sport for 10.88 years (SD = 16.68 years) and on their college team for 2.10 years (SD = 1.03 years). Methods: Participants completed a demographic and weight background questionnaire, Questionnaire for Eating Disorder Diagnoses, and the Bulimia Test-Revised. Results: The authors classified participants as eating disordered (n = 4, 2.0%), symptomatic (n = 52, 25.5%), and asymptomatic (n = 148, 72.5%). Few participants engaged in binge eating; most used exercise, as opposed to vomiting, dieting, laxatives, or diuretics, to control their weight. Conclusions: Female athletes suffer from eating disorders, and most experience symptom levels that are subclinical but problematic.

Female Collegiate Athletes: Prevalence of Eating Disorders and Disordered Eating Behaviors

Triathletes ( N = 203) completed both the Exercise Dependence Questionnaire (EDQ) and the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT). Cluster and discriminant analysis showed that there were four distinct groups. Two out of the four groups showed high EDQ scores with one of these groups displaying an additional eating disorder. The members of the third group only had a high EAT score and the last group showed low scores on both inventories. These four dependence groups differed significantly in a number of descriptive variables, but there were few differences between the primary and secondary exercise dependent groups. It was concluded that the existence of primary exercise dependence was demonstrated, but that there was little distinction between it and secondary dependence for the variables examined.

Eating disorders and exercise dependence in triathletes.

http://hub.hku.hk/bitstream/10722/48693/1/122786.pdf

Motivational orientations in youth sport participation: Using Achievement Goal Theory and Reversal Theory

The purpose was to examine sport participation (excluding physical education classes) of school-aged Chinese children with disabilities attending special schools in Hong Kong. A sample of 237 children, ages 9 to 19, attending 10 special schools in Hong Kong, responded to a sport participation questionnaire in individual interviews. Data were analyzed by gender, two school levels, and five disability types. Results relating to participation frequency and extent indicated that girls were significantly less active than boys. Children with physical disability, visual impairment, and mental disability were less active than children with hearing impairment and maladjustment. Children with different types of disabilities varied in their participation patterns and choices of physical activities as well as their motives for sport participation, nonparticipation, and withdrawal. We concluded that disability type is more related to children’s participation behaviors in sport and physical activities than to gender an...

Sport Participation of Hong Kong Chinese Children with Disabilities in Special Schools.

Background. Reversal theory (Apter, 1982, 1989, 2001) is one of the motivational frameworks which attempts to examine human subjective experiences and behaviours. There are four dyads of metamotivational states (telic-paratelic, conformist-negativistic, autic-alloic, and mastery-sympathy) and individuals may prefer to be in one rather than the other of a dyad of states in a specific context such as sport participation (i.e. situational state balances).

Aims. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between situational state balances and motives for sport and physical activity participation in adolescents using the theoretical framework of reversal theory. Their participation motives and the interacting factors of their situational state balances, gender, and level of participation were examined.

Sample. Secondary school students (N = 1,235) aged about 14 to 20 years who participated in competitive or recreational sport completed the Participation Motivation Inventory (Gill, Gross, & Huddleston, 1983) to assess their motives for sport and physical activity participation, and the Apter Motivational Style Profile (Apter International, 1999) to assess their situational state balances.

Methods. Factor analysis of the participation motives yielded factors to which MANOVAs and ANOVAs were applied with situational state balance, gender, and participation level as independent variables.

Results. Factor analysis resulted in seven motive factors: status, team/friend, excitement/challenge, skill, energy release, fitness, and situational factors. MANOVAs and ANOVAs indicated significant differences in the sport motives between the situational state balances, genders, and levels of participation, and between pairs of situational state balance groups in males and females of competitive and recreational level. The autic-alloic dyad produced the strongest motive strength differences of the four pairs.

Conclusions. The variable of situational state balances is significantly linked with participation motives in sport.

Koenraad J. Lindner

Papers

Eating disorders and exercise dependence in triathletes.

Motivational orientations in youth sport participation: Using Achievement Goal Theory and Reversal Theory

Sport Participation of Hong Kong Chinese Children with Disabilities in Special Schools.

Situational state balances and participation motivation in youth sport : A reversal theory perspective

Predictability of sport participation motivation from metamotivational dominances and orientations