Elite Athletes Mental Health Status And Related Factors

Competitive sports, which aims at the winning in the competition, has the high requirements of athletes in physical and mental competence, and the emphasis on their mental health to improve their comprehensive quality is of great importance for their performance in the competition . As athletes are population under high stress and great load of physique and mind, research on mental health of athletes are needed for sustainable development of competitive sports. In addition, from the point of humane care, the mental health of athletes is in need.This study, based on the previous findings, aims to get more information about mental health state of athletes. The tools include psychological health inventory, athlete sport fatigue questionnaire, social support review scale, perceived social support scale, China athlete coping scale and self-made psychological survey questionnaire. The research subjects are 205 elite athletes of the first level or above on the team and SPSS10.0 are used for statistic analysis. The results are suggestions are as follows:(1) The psychological health state of elite athletes are not optimistic and the screening rate of psychological problems is high; compared to the national adolescent, there is significant difference in the factors of somatization, depression, anxiety, personality disorder and excitatory state it provides the suggestion that psychological consultation office is set up for the team and the professional consultants are trained so that the psychological health education and consultation can be conducted by group assistance, individual assistance and lectures.(2)psychological health level of elite athletes show the difference in sex, level, age, recruitment duration and education, age comes in the regressive function of the psychological health total score. The suggestion is to give more humane care for the group of female athletes, low class, new team member and low education level.(3)There is close correlationship between psychological health level and sport fatigue degree and the significance is even reached among most of the factors; there is significant difference among the factors except between the group with high fatigue level and the one with low fatigue level, the symptom of high fatigue group is apparent and the physical/emotional burnout comes in the regressive function of the psychological health total score. The suggestion is attention should be paid to optimize training environment, vary training methods, regulate scientific rest rules and stimulate the activeness of training to lessen the harm of sports fatigue on the psychology.(4)There is close correlationship between psychological health level and social support and the significance is even reached among most of the factors; there is significant difference among all the factors except between the group with high social support level and the one with low social support level, the symptom of low social support group is apparent and the subjective and perceived family support comes in the regressive function of the psychological health total score. The suggestion is that more support is expected for the athletes under high stress and meanwhile conditions are created to help athletes acquire support from the family, friends and other people. (5) negative correlation is exposed between problem—focused coping , emotion-focused coping and psychological health and some factors show statistic meaning, whereas positive correlation exists between coping avoidance, coping suppression and psychological health factors with no statistic meaning. It is suggested that positive coping ways should be cultivated.(6)The main factors which have effects on psychological health of athletes include long time intensive training, injury, monotonous lifestyle, competition stress, intense personal relationship, education, risk of the occupation and psychological development environment. The suggestion is the education in the spare time to improve their life quality during the free time and to help them get the knowledge and skills for free time life.(7)training motive and attitude of most athletes are positive which focus on interest and the cultivation of personal ability. The factors of high psychological stress and injury affect training activeness and the psychological stress comes from failure of the performance breakthrough and the worry for their future.(8)lack of psychological health knowledge are common among athletes and most of them hope to get the knowledge and get consultation and guide.