New research highlights the mental health risks for young athletes balancing sport, work, and study

A Flinders University-led study warns that the pressures of elite sport combined with academic and work commitments can threaten young athletes’ mental wellbeing, especially when their identity is narrowly focused on sporting success.

Young athletes can thrive on the discipline and camaraderie of elite sport, but new research suggests that the same environment can also expose them to mental health strain when training crowds out the rest of life. A Flinders University-led study published in the Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy says the period between ages 17 and 24 is especially delicate, with many athletes juggling demanding schedules alongside work and study. In the group examined, 84.6% had paid jobs and 61.5% were also in education, underscoring how much is being asked of them beyond the field, court or track.

The researchers argue that the real issue is not sport itself, but the loss of balance around it. Jamie Wilson, the Flinders University PhD candidate who led the study, said athletes who begin to feel that their passion has taken over every waking hour face greater risks to their wellbeing, now and later. Ivanka Prichard, a co-author and Flinders University professor, said support beyond sport should be seen as part of building resilience rather than a distraction from performance. The study describes “occupational balance” as the way young athletes divide time between training, education, work, leisure and rest, and treats that balance as central to mental health.

That concern fits a broader body of sports psychiatry research. A review in the British Journal of Sports Medicine notes that about half of common mental health disorders begin before the age of 18, a reminder that elite athletes are entering a period when many vulnerabilities naturally emerge. Other reviews have found that elite athletes face anxiety and depression at rates broadly comparable with the general population, while more recent work suggests around a quarter experience anxiety symptoms and about one in five report depressive symptoms. Distress appears particularly pronounced in individual sports, where athletes may carry more personal responsibility and isolation.

The Flinders team also points to several pressures that can intensify the problem: long training hours, relocation away from stable relationships, the sense of being treated as a commodity and the weight of superhuman expectations that can make it harder to ask for help. The researchers said female athletes and those in individual sports may be at greater risk. Their message aligns with wider evidence that adolescent girls are more likely to report anxiety, mood and eating disorders, while boys are more likely to struggle with substance use. Studies of travelling youth athletes have likewise found a need for more targeted support, as elite sport and normal development increasingly overlap.

Wilson and his co-authors argue that athletes who stay in sport because they genuinely enjoy it, rather than because of outside pressure, may be better placed to cope with the demands of the elite pathway. Their conclusion is blunt: sporting success built on a narrow identity is fragile, but success supported by education, work, relationships and rest is more likely to last. For parents and caregivers, the warning is clear. Talent matters, but so does the wider life that helps a young person remain healthy enough to use it.