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CoSIDA 360 - September 2021
Mental Health and Emotional Wellness for CoSIDA Members
Follow-up on Depression and the SID research study
by Chris Yandle, Ph.D., Independent Researcher and Martha Dettl-Rivera, Ed.D., Winthrop University
In the winter of 2020-21, researchers Chris Yandle, Ph.D. and Martha Dettl-Rivera, Ed.D., conducted a first of it’s kind survey with CoSIDA members on mental health and depression. See the findings below. Dr. Dettl-Rivera also spoke about the findings during the June 2020 #CoSIDA22 virtual convention session on mental and emotional health. To better understand depression symptoms among college athletic communications personnel, the researchers plan to conduct qualitative interviews to determine themes and feelings among a representative population of the CoSIDA membership body.
When the world ground to a halt in March 2020, many of us struggled with understanding how the pandemic would affect our mental health and well-being. With high-profile professional athletes such as Kevin Love and Michael Phelps sharing their mental health struggles before and during the pandemic, sports academic researchers at Winthrop University wondered how an often overlooked subset in college athletics viewed their mental health. That subset, sports communications and athletic communications personnel, are known to be among the most overworked and underpaid in college athletics.
This quantitative research was led by two former college athletics professionals, Dr. Chris Yandle and Dr. Martha Dettl-Rivera.
The purpose of this quantitative study was to measure the characteristic attitudes and symptoms of depression among sports information personnel across college athletics.
An adjunct instructor at Winthrop, Dr. Yandle, an outspoken advocate for mental health who has struggled with depression throughout his career, spent more than a decade in sports information at Marshall, Louisiana, Baylor, Miami, and Georgia Tech before leaving the profession in 2016. Dr. Yandle collaborated with Winthrop colleague and Assistant Professor of Athletic Training, Dr. Dettl-Rivera, who had seen the effects of mental health on college athletes when she was a clinical athletic trainer.
NOTE: Dr. Dettl-Rivera also was a panelist during the #CoSIDA22 virtual convention, speaking on “Anxiety of the Unknown: Exploring the Mental Health and Emotional Wellness of SIDs Today” with CoSIDA members Linda Sprouse (University of Colorado), Eric Harding (CSU East Bay), Joe Reinsch (formerly of University of Texas at Tyler).
CoSIDA members and #CoSIDA22 participants can watch this session on-demand. Simply re-access the attendee hub at this link or via CoSIDA.com/2021convention. Keep in mind that if you are a current CoSIDA member you are already registered to access this programming and will simply need to go through the log-in steps of entering your name and email to receive a temporary security code. If you are non-CoSIDA member who did not register and would like to view this content, contact willroleson@cosida.com.
Methods
Dr. Yandle and Dr. Dettl-Rivera opted to utilize the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) questionnaire, which is a 21-item self-reporting instrument for measuring the severity of depression in adolescents and adults aged 13 years and older (Beck et al., 1996). The BDI-II questionnaire distributed to CoSIDA members included 20 questions, not 21. One of the questions, Q9: Suicidal Thoughts and Wishes, within the BDI-II was removed because of the sensitive nature of the question and per the recommendation of Winthrop University’s Institutional Review Board committee.
The survey was scored on a Likert scale (0-3) with a list of four statement items arranged in increasing severity about a particular symptom of depression. On two items (15 and 17), there are seven options (scored 0-6).
This study is believed to be the first to use the BDI-II survey instrument among college athletics staff members. While the BDI-II survey instrument is used mostly in clinical settings, numerous studies provided evidence for its validity and reliability across different populations, such as Korean adolescents (Lee et al., 2017) and university students (Sprinkle et al., 2002).
Thanks to the assistance of CoSIDA leadership, the survey was distributed to the membership’s database of more than 2,200 members in December of 2020. Approximately 20 percent of the CoSIDA membership participated in the study (n=582). There were 581 participants who agreed to participate and started the survey; however, only 479 participants completed the BDI-II survey and demographics section.
Demographics
Roughly 40 percent (n=191) of the survey participants were aged 25-34 while another 30 percent (n=142) were aged 35-44. An overwhelming majority of survey participants identified as male (76.6 percent) and White/Caucasian (88.7 percent) which parallels the current gender and racial disparities among college athletics professionals (Lapchick et al., 2020).
More than 50 percent (n=244) of the survey participants have worked in college athletics for 10 or fewer years. Conversely, a fifth of participants have spent more than 20 years in college athletics. NCAA members accounted for more than 85 percent (n=410) of the responses. NAIA members accounted for the second-most responses with 44 of the 479 participants.
Selected Results
Out of the 20 BDI-II survey items, the researchers opted to focus on five specific areas – pessimism, loss of pleasure, agitation, loss of energy, and tiredness or fatigue. These items had five of the highest mean scores.
Q2: Pessimism. Nearly 69 percent of the 479 survey participants said they were pessimistic about their future. Sixty-two percent (n=299) answered “I feel more discouraged about my future than I used to”, while 31.5 percent (n=149) said “I am not discouraged about my future.”
Q4: Loss of Pleasure. More than 300 survey participants answered that they had lost pleasure in things they used to enjoy. Fifty-two percent (n=249) answered “I don’t enjoy things as much as I used to.”
Q10: Agitation. This item had the fourth-greatest mean score (1.85) of the 20 survey items. Fifty-seven percent (n=272) responded that “I feel more restless or wound up than usual.” Conversely, 30 percent (n=146) said “I am no more restless of wound up than usual.”
Q14: Loss of Energy. This item had the third-greatest mean score (1.94) of the 20 survey items. Nearly 77 percent (n=366) said they experienced varying levels of energy loss.
Q19: Tiredness or Fatigue. Fifty-six percent (n=268) of survey respondents said, “I get more tired or fatigued more easily than usual.” Fifty-six respondents said they were too tired to do a lot or more of the things they used to do.
Analysis
The total score of the BDI-II was determined by the sum of the means of each item of the survey. The BDI-II revealed a total sum of 34.21, which falls within the range (29 to 61) classified as severe for depression symptomology.
Discussion and Future Research
The Beck Depression Inventory-II is a snapshot into 21 different depression symptoms. Some of these results could be generalizable to the entire CoSIDA membership.
To better understand depression symptoms among college athletic communications personnel, the researchers plan to conduct qualitative interviews to determine themes and feelings among a representative population of the CoSIDA membership body.
While the NCAA has become active in the mental health space among college athletes, this initial quantitative study provides evidence that the NCAA and member institutions should better support the mental health of athletics staff.
Dr. Yandle and Dr. Dettl-Rivera plan to submit an academic paper on their findings for publication later this year. If you’d like to learn more about their study, you can email the researchers at yandlec@winthrop.edu and dettlriveram@winthrop.edu.
References
Beck, A. T., Steer, R. A., & Brown, G. K. (1996). BDI-II, Beck Depression Inventory: Manual (2nd ed). San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation.
Lapchick, R. E., Bowman, D., Eichenberger, D., Ewing, S., Forbes, A. J., Green, A., Jackson, B., Johnson-Schmeltzer, B., Kiernan, A., Middleton, T., Miller, D., Richardson, K., & Turner, A. (2020). Racial and gender report card: College sport. Orlando, FL: The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport.
Lee, E.-H., Lee, S.-J., Hwang, S.-T., Hong, S.-H., & Kim, J.-H. (2017). Reliability and Validity of the Beck Depression Inventory-II among Korean Adolescents. Psychiatry Investigation, 14(1), 30–36. https://doi.org/10.4306/pi.2017.14.1.30
Sprinkle, S. D., Lurie, D., Insko, S. L., Atkinson, G., Jones, G. L., Logan, A. R., & Bissada, N. N. (2002). Criterion validity, severity cut scores, and test-retest reliability of the Beck Depression Inventory-II in a university counseling center sample. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 49(3), 381–385. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0167.49.3.381
Table 1: Demographics
| Age |
|
Under 25 |
28 |
5.8% |
|
25-34 |
191 |
39.8% |
|
35-44 |
142 |
29.6% |
|
45-54 |
73 |
15.2% |
|
Over 55 |
45 |
94% |
|
Total |
479 |
|
| Gender |
|
Male |
367 |
76.6% |
|
Female |
110 |
22.9% |
|
Non-binary |
2 |
0.4% |
|
Transgender |
0 |
0% |
|
Total |
479 |
|
| Ethnicity (Select all that apply) |
|
White, Caucasian, or Eurpean descent |
439 |
88.7% |
|
Black or African-American |
15 |
3.0% |
|
Hispanic, Mexican-American, or Latino |
15 |
3.0% |
|
Asian |
15 |
3.0% |
|
Native American |
4 |
0.8% |
|
Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander |
3 |
0.6% |
|
Other |
1 |
0.2% |
|
Prefer not to answer |
3 |
0.6% |
|
Total |
495 |
|
| Job Level |
|
Assistant Director |
135 |
28.2% |
|
Associate Director |
31 |
6.5% |
|
Director |
144 |
30.1% |
|
Assistant Athletic Director |
77 |
16.1% |
|
Associate/Senior Associate Athletic Director |
35 |
7.3% |
|
Other |
57 |
11.9% |
|
Total |
479 |
|
| School's Primary Affiliation |
|
Division I |
194 |
40.5% |
|
Division II |
95 |
19.8% |
|
Division III |
121 |
25.3% |
|
NAIA Divisoin I |
33 |
6.9% |
|
NAIA Division II |
11 |
2.3% |
|
Canadian |
5 |
1.1% |
|
2-Year |
14 |
2.9% |
|
Other |
6 |
1.3% |
|
Total |
479 |
|
| Length in Athletics |
|
<5 years |
112 |
23.4% |
|
5-10 years |
132 |
27.6% |
|
11-15 years |
77 |
16.1% |
|
16-20 years |
60 |
12.5% |
|
>20 years |
98 |
20.5% |
|
Total |
479 |
|
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