Walton Courtney C, Rice Simon, Gao Caroline X, Butterworth Matt, Clements Matti, Purcell Rosemary
Elite Sports and Mental Health, Orygen, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Centre for Youth Mental Health, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
BMJ Open Sport Exerc Med. 2021 Mar 5;7(1):e000984. doi: 10.1136/bmjsem-2020-000984. eCollection 2021.
To examine gender differences in the reporting of, and contributors to, mental health symptoms.
This was a cross-sectional observational study of adult athletes within a national elite sporting system (n=523; women=292;56%), who completed a battery of assessments including measures of mental health and adverse life events. Group differences across a range of scores were examined, followed by gender-stratified bootstrapped linear regression and meta-regression on measures where gender differences were observed.
Women athletes reported higher rates of mental health symptoms, and lower rates of mental well-being, although there were no differences in general psychological distress or life satisfaction. Women reported experiencing several adverse life events at higher rates than men; particularly interpersonal conflict, financial hardship and discrimination. Low self-esteem was consistently associated with poorer mental health outcomes for all athletes. While a range of factors were associated with poor mental health in men or women athletes, meta-regression suggested that experiencing financial difficulty and social media abuse were more uniquely associated with mental health symptoms in men.
Gender differences in mental health in elite athletes are apparent. Approaches to increasing well-being are required in elite sport.
研究心理健康症状报告及影响因素中的性别差异。
这是一项对国家精英体育系统内成年运动员的横断面观察性研究（n = 523；女性 = 292；56%），这些运动员完成了一系列评估，包括心理健康和不良生活事件的测量。检查了一系列分数的组间差异，随后对观察到性别差异的测量指标进行了按性别分层的自抽样线性回归和元回归分析。
女运动员报告的心理健康症状发生率较高，心理健康水平较低，尽管在一般心理困扰或生活满意度方面没有差异。女性报告经历几种不良生活事件的发生率高于男性；特别是人际冲突、经济困难和歧视。低自尊一直与所有运动员较差的心理健康结果相关。虽然一系列因素与男、女运动员的心理健康不佳有关，但元回归分析表明，经历经济困难和遭受社交媒体虐待在男性中与心理健康症状的关联更为独特。
精英运动员心理健康方面的性别差异明显。精英体育需要采取提高幸福感的方法。
