The Mental Health Struggles Dual Career Athletes Face (And How to Overcome Them)

Oct 26

16 min read

Man sits on a park bench with his face in his hands as a therapist listens with a notebook in a sunny office. — Mental Health Struggles

Nearly half of dual career athletes experience symptoms of at least one mental health disorder during their careers^[1]. Research shows that 22% and 23% report moderate to severe anxiety and depression, respectively, while 43% score below the threshold for positive mental well-being^[2]. These figures are not merely statistical abstractions; they represent real athletes attempting to pursue excellence in both sport and education simultaneously, often at considerable psychological cost.

So where does this leave us as sport psychology practitioners? It seems reasonable to acknowledge that dual career athletes occupy a particular position — one where the demands of athletic performance and academic achievement converge, creating pressures that single-focus peers rarely encounter. But it is precisely because these individuals carry such overlapping burdens that we need to understand not only what mental health struggles they face but also why they face them and, critically, how we can offer meaningful support.

This article explores the distinct psychological pressures dual career athletes experience, examines the role of mental health literacy in recognising and addressing these struggles, and outlines evidence-based strategies to help them thrive across both domains of their lives.

Understanding the Dual Career Athlete Experience

What is a Dual Career Athlete

The dual career path represents the successful combination of a sports career and education^[3]; in practice, this means pursuing holistic development by balancing athletic and educational endeavours simultaneously, with the recognition that an elite athletic career is, by its very nature, temporary and most athletes cannot generate sufficient income across their entire life course^[3].

This combination encompasses considerably more than attending lectures between training sessions. Athletic careers demand long-term practice — somewhere between 20 and 30 hours per week in training and competition activities alone — combined with 30 or more hours per week in educational requirements^[4]. These overlapping pursuits serve an important purpose: they prepare student-athletes for future societal roles once their competitive sport career ends, acknowledging that injury, deselection, or retirement can abruptly terminate athletic participation at any point^[5]. The dual career path, then, is both a pragmatic choice and a developmental one.

The Demands of Balancing Sport and Education

Balancing these overlapping commitments creates distinct challenges that extend well beyond time management. Student-athletes report limited leisure time (62.8%), academic overload (60.3%), frequent absence from classes (59.6%), and financial uncertainty (35.5%)^[3]. The result is reduced interaction with professors, classmates, and peers, alongside missed classes and examinations^[3].

Physical and psychological fatigue compounds these pressures considerably. Demanding training sessions, travel to competitions, and participation in various sporting events place athletes at a distinct educational disadvantage compared to their non-athletic counterparts^[3]. These challenges do not remain contained within academic life; they spill into family and peer relationships, creating identity-related issues that further complicate the athlete's experience^[3].

Several factors shape how successfully an athlete manages the dual career, including age, gender, motivation, sport type, competitive level, university context, and academic major^[3]. Both proximal entourage (parents, peers, educators, coaches, and sport managers) and distal support systems (sports clubs, federations, and educational institutions) play meaningful roles in determining outcomes^[3]. Yet despite this seemingly broad network of support, 89.3% of student-athletes reported a lack of familiarity with policies, programmes, or measures designed to facilitate the combination of elite sport and academic study^[3]. The support exists, in other words; the knowledge of it, far less so.

Where support is recognised, it comes primarily from family and the sporting environment. Parents represent the most frequent source of dual career support (98.3%), followed by coaches (86%), siblings (60.3%), teachers (41.3%), friends (36.4%), sport teammates (33.9%), academic staff (24%), and classmates (18.2%)^[3]. The pattern here is telling — formal institutional support features least in the hierarchy, while personal relationships carry most of the weight.

How Dual Careers Differ from Single-Focus Paths

Single-focus paths — whether purely athletic or purely academic — allow individuals to dedicate their full attention and energy to one domain. Athletes pursuing sport exclusively can prioritise recovery, attend every training session without academic conflict, and avoid the psychological strain of managing competing deadlines. Students following traditional academic paths, similarly, can participate fully in campus life, engage socially without missing gatherings for competitions, and allocate study time without the interference of travel schedules or physical exhaustion from training.

Dual career athletes, by contrast, must pursue excellence in both domains simultaneously while managing constraints their single-focus peers never encounter. The quality of dual career experience relies on (a) collaboration among multiple stakeholders, (b) the implementation of dedicated programmes and policies, and (c) well-structured systematic monitoring^[3]. Without these coordinated efforts working in concert, athletes risk dropping out of sport or academic study — or both — when attempting to sustain excellence across two demanding domains.

Common Mental Health Struggles Dual Career Athletes Face

Anxiety and performance pressure

Anxiety affects a substantial portion of dual career athletes, with generalised anxiety disorder prevalence ranging from 6% for clinically confirmed cases to 14.6% for elevated self-reported symptoms^[2]. Performance pressure amplifies these symptoms considerably; athletes face expectations from coaches, teammates, fans, and themselves while simultaneously managing academic deadlines and examination schedules — a convergence of demands that leaves little psychological breathing room.

Athletic trainers report that 85% believe anxiety among student-athletes warrants serious concern^[6]. The physical manifestations — increased heart rate, trembling, shortness of breath, and feelings of powerlessness^[6] — are well documented. What is perhaps less appreciated is how these symptoms intensify precisely when athletes can least afford them: when competition seasons overlap with critical academic periods, the dual pressures compound rather than simply coexist.

Depression and low mental well-being

Depression prevalence among dual career athletes varies considerably, with estimates ranging from under 10% to as high as 30-34%^[2]. Risk factors specific to this population include injury, over-training, involuntary career termination, and unrealistic performance expectations^[6]; each of these carries weight independently, but in combination they create a particularly challenging psychological landscape. Signs manifest across several domains — increased irritability, withdrawal, lack of motivation, loss of interest in sport, social isolation, and irregular sleep patterns^[6] — making identification difficult for coaches and support staff who may not know what to look for.

Beyond clinically diagnosable depression, 43% of dual career athletes score below the threshold for positive mental well-being^[2]^[7]. This figure deserves careful attention. It reveals that a significant proportion of athletes, even those who would not meet diagnostic criteria for any disorder, experience compromised psychological functioning that affects their capacity to thrive in either academic or athletic pursuits.

Burnout from overlapping demands

Burnout emerges when sport demands outweigh an athlete's coping capacity, producing chronic stress and motivation decline^[8]. Research on college athletes demonstrates that athletic burnout spills over into academic burnout^[8]; the mechanism is not arbitrary. Two interconnected pathways explain it: (a) high-intensity training without adequate recovery weakens emotion regulation strategies, intensifying emotional exhaustion and psychological distress^[8], and (b) the resulting sleep disturbances deplete physiological and psychological resources, producing increased fatigue, emotional instability, and impaired cognitive functioning^[8]. Each pathway feeds the other, elevating academic burnout risk while simultaneously undermining athletic performance.

Gender differences in mental health outcomes

Female athletes face disproportionate mental health challenges compared to their male counterparts; meta-analytic evidence shows female athletes report 1.17 times higher overall anxiety, 1.42 times higher depression, 1.98 times higher distress, and 2.19 times higher disordered eating^[9]. Up to 45% of female athletes report disordered eating, with higher risk concentrated in elite populations^[9]. Female athletes also demonstrate twice the rate of psychological distress^[9], with sleep disturbances proving more prevalent — specifically increased nocturnal waking and difficulty falling asleep^[9]. Male athletes, conversely, show higher rates of alcohol misuse and illicit drug abuse^[9]. These differences matter for practitioners, not because they simplify the picture, but because they complicate it in ways that demand gender-sensitive support planning.

Age-related vulnerability periods

Adolescence represents a critical period for mental health emergence in dual career athletes. Most mental health disorders surface during adolescence and early adulthood, with first onset in elite athletes typically occurring around age 19^[2][93]; rapid biological, psychological, and social changes during these years increase vulnerability to anxiety, depression, and other disorders^[2]. Emerging adulthood brings additional challenges as athletes navigate greater independence, academic or career transitions, and financial responsibilities^[2]. The junior-to-senior transition exposes athletes to increased demands across training, competition, organisation, and lifestyle — often coinciding precisely with higher education enrolment^[7]. The timing is rarely convenient, and the cumulative weight of these transitions warrants early, proactive attention from practitioners and support staff alike.

Why Dual Career Athletes Are at Higher Risk

Understanding what mental health struggles dual career athletes face is one part of the picture; understanding why they face them is quite another. Each risk factor explored below does not operate in isolation — rather, these pressures accumulate and interact, compounding one another in ways that make the dual career path distinctly demanding.

Time Constraints and Recovery Challenges

The mathematics of a dual career athlete's week rarely add up comfortably. Athletes train four or five times per week, with training sessions consuming close to five hours each evening^[10]; after which, mental and physical exhaustion leaves little meaningful capacity for academic engagement. One athlete captured this plainly: "You're in no mood to actually do anything when you come home"^[10].

What makes this particularly challenging is not simply the time lost but the recovery deficit that accumulates alongside it^[2]. The body and mind require adequate rest to consolidate training adaptations and sustain psychological resilience; yet dual career athletes face overlapping commitments that crowd out recovery before it can take effect. The result is a cycle where neither academic nor athletic performance reaches its genuine potential — not because the athlete lacks ability or effort, but because the conditions for sustained performance in either domain are rarely present at the same time.

Academic Pressures During Competition Seasons

Academic demands do not pause for competition seasons, and this overlap proves particularly damaging. Academic requirements emerged as the highest scoring source of stress among elite junior athletes, correlating most strongly with perceived stress (r = 0.467)^[11]; with the highest levels of stress and illness incidence arising specifically during examination weeks that fall within competitive seasons^[11].

Missing lectures creates a compounding disadvantage. Athletes frequently experience conflicts between lectures, assignments, and training sessions, making it genuinely difficult to manage both domains effectively^[10]. The unpredictable nature of training schedules means carefully constructed plans get disrupted repeatedly, reinforcing a persistent sense of academic disadvantage^[10]. This is not simply a logistical inconvenience — it shapes how athletes perceive themselves as students and feeds the anxiety we identified in the previous section.

Financial Stress and Limited Support

Financial pressure adds another layer to an already demanding experience^[10]. Insufficient scholarship support, high travel costs, and the frequent necessity of working alongside studies and sport create sustained pressure that proves difficult to manage. One athlete described it this way: "Trying to manage your finances the best you can is a big challenge. I'd have to pay for my own accommodation and everything like that, so it is sometimes tough financially"^[10].

Transport costs compound this further. Athletes cited travel as a meaningful source of stress, with extensive commuting between university and training venues adding considerably to already full schedules^[10]; one participant reported driving 35 or 40 minutes each way^[10]. At the university level, athletes often rely on informal arrangements or must negotiate academic flexibility individually^[2], meaning the burden of managing these pressures falls squarely on the athlete rather than on any coordinated institutional response.

Social Isolation from Peers

Perhaps one of the less visible consequences of the dual career path is the social isolation many athletes experience. Despite regular contact with teammates, athletes highlighted the necessity of making "little sacrifices" in their social and personal lives to sustain their dual commitments^[10]; and the unpredictable nature of training schedules means plans with family and friends get disrupted with enough regularity to erode these relationships over time^[10].

The disconnection extends beyond missed social events. Some athletes find themselves gradually excluded from peer social circles, as friends begin to assume they will always be unavailable^[10]. Conversations gravitate towards sporting performances, reinforcing an athlete-first identity rather than supporting the kind of holistic connection that sustains psychological wellbeing^[10]. We are privileged as sport psychology practitioners to appreciate how profoundly this social narrowing can affect a young person's sense of self — particularly when identity is already under pressure from both athletic and academic performance demands.

Career Transition Uncertainties

The transition out of sport carries its own considerable mental health risks, and these risks are especially acute for athletes who have not had the opportunity — or the support — to plan for life beyond competition. The majority of retired athletes in one study expressed uncertainty about their futures post-retirement, with only two of 20 participants reporting clear plans^[12]. Athletes who had dropped out of higher education during their sporting careers emphasised, in retrospect, how important managing dual careers had been for preparing them for life after sport^[12].

Athletes with highly exclusive sport identities face a heightened risk of maladaptive adjustment during retirement, particularly when retirement is forced or sudden^[13]. Without pre-retirement planning, identity loss, decreased self-esteem, and difficulty envisioning life beyond competitive sport become common experiences^[13]. This underlines why the dual career path — for all its demands — carries within it a genuine protective function: the athlete who develops an academic identity alongside their athletic one is, in many respects, better equipped for the transitions that inevitably lie ahead.

The Role of Mental Health Literacy Among Dual Career Athletes

What is mental health literacy

Mental health literacy encompasses the knowledge, beliefs, and skills regarding mental health disorders that aid their recognition, management, or prevention^[14]. More specifically, it includes understanding effective self-management strategies, challenging mental disorder stigma, recognising when others need assistance, and facilitating help-seeking behaviours ^[14]. Think of mental health literacy as the foundation upon which all other support structures rest; without it, even the most well-resourced support systems struggle to reach those who need them most.

Athletes, who often exist in a culture that glorifies toughness and self-reliance, frequently demonstrate low rates of mental health literacy^[14]. This deficiency makes it difficult for dual career athletes to reach out for help or accurately label their experiences as mental health symptoms when appropriate^[14]. Coaches and support staff present a parallel concern; those who lack education in mental health symptoms cannot identify negative, stigmatising commentary that inadvertently discourages help-seeking among the athletes they support^[14]. The result is an environment where struggling athletes remain invisible, not because support is absent, but because neither the athlete nor those around them recognise what they are seeing.

Knowledge about seeking mental health information

Poor mental health literacy manifests in several interconnected ways: uncertainty about where to seek help, an inability to distinguish between 'real distress' and 'normal distress', and a lack of information about available services^[15]. Research suggests this barrier affects most acutely those athletes without direct access to centralised support systems^[15].

There is another layer worth acknowledging here. Athletes also experience anxiety about what actually happens during sessions with counsellors or psychologists, which creates an additional obstacle to seeking support^[15]. Lack of knowledge about symptoms of mental disorders compounds this, serving as an important barrier to help-seeking in its own right^[15]. One can see how these barriers reinforce each other; uncertainty about symptoms leads to uncertainty about whether help is warranted, which leads to uncertainty about where and how to seek it.

Recognition of mental health symptoms

Symptom recognition presents a particular challenge for dual career athletes. They experience regular physical strain and find it genuinely difficult to distinguish between fatigue caused by physical exhaustion versus that which signals depression or anxiety^[15]. Depressed mood and emotional fluctuations become everyday occurrences in this population, making it hard to identify when symptoms cross from the ordinary demands of a demanding lifestyle into clinical territory^[15].

We might consider this from the practitioner's perspective as well. When athletes normalise psychological distress as simply part of elite sport and academic life, they rarely present for support until symptoms have become significantly entrenched. Early recognition — by the athlete, by coaches, by educators, and by practitioners — remains one of the most powerful tools we have.

Addressing stigma and help-seeking barriers

Stigma represents the most common factor deterring athletes from seeking help, referring to negative thoughts and behaviours directed toward individuals viewed as weak if they require mental health support^[16]. Athletes perceive a qualitative difference between sport-related issues (e.g., performance anxiety, pre-competition nerves) and mental health problems (e.g., depression, generalised anxiety), with the latter carrying considerably more stigma^[15]. They feel more comfortable consulting psychologists for performance-related concerns but not for personal mental health struggles^[15]; in effect, the psychologist is welcome in the sport domain but less welcome in the human domain.

This distinction is important for us as practitioners. The dual career athlete who would willingly work on mental skills for performance may resist identical support framed as mental health care. Understanding this distinction does not mean accepting it; rather, it offers us a starting point for building the kind of relationships and environments where help-seeking feels possible for the whole person, not only the athlete.

Supporting Dual Career Athletes: Practical Strategies for Thriving Across Both Domains

Understanding the pressures dual career athletes face is only part of our responsibility as sport psychology practitioners; the other part is knowing how to respond to those pressures with strategies grounded in evidence and shaped by the individual before us. What follows are practical approaches — for athletes themselves, for practitioners working alongside them, and for the institutions that shape their environments.

Build a strong support network

We know from the literature that parents represent the most frequent source of dual career support (98.3%), followed by coaches (86%) and siblings (60.3%), with academic staff (24%) and classmates (18.2%) offering far less . This distribution matters because it tells us where existing support is concentrated and where the gaps lie. Building a strong support network means attending deliberately to those gaps, not simply relying on whoever happens to be closest.

Structured peer mentoring programmes pair experienced athletes with newcomers, offering both emotional support and practical guidance from those who have lived the dual career experience. Institutional committees that facilitate dialogue among teachers, coaches, and parents create coordinated, rather than fragmented, support. Seek out individuals who offer different support dimensions: esteem support from teammates who understand athletic demands, informational support from coaches who know the performance landscape, and emotional backing from family who know you beyond your sport identity.

Access professional mental health services

Campus counselling centres, athletic trainers, and specialised programmes offer confidential support that many dual career athletes do not access until difficulties become acute. Programmes such as Help Out a Mate, Ahead of the Game, and Team Talk enhance mental health knowledge and reduce stigma through psychoeducation . The principle here is straightforward — make contact early rather than waiting for a crisis to confirm that help is needed.

Athletes often experience anxiety about what happens during sessions with counsellors or psychologists, and this uncertainty itself becomes a barrier . Knowing that these services address both performance-related concerns and broader mental health struggles, rather than treating the two as separate categories, may ease this reluctance.

Develop time management and coping skills

Time, as we explored earlier, is among the scarcest resources for dual career athletes. Managing it well is less about squeezing more into each day and more about clarifying what matters most. Practically, this means dedicating time each week to plan and prioritise tasks as urgent, important, or deferrable; entering activities into planners and reviewing them consistently; establishing routines for study, meals, and sleep that reduce decision fatigue; and setting goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound — goals that offer daily direction rather than distant, abstract targets. Equally, coping skills matter here. High-intensity training without adequate recovery weakens emotion regulation strategies . Building coping capacity means treating recovery not as a luxury but as a training variable in its own right.

Create flexible educational arrangements

Universities can offer a range of accommodations, including (a) assessment deferrals, (b) overseas exam options, (c) extended coursework deadlines, (d) timetable adjustments, (e) part-time study modes, and (f) authorised sport-related absences . Some institutions permit breaks from study during major sporting events. These arrangements acknowledge a practical reality: the academic calendar and the competition calendar were not designed with one another in mind, and athletes should not bear the full cost of that misalignment.

Despite this, most student-athletes (89.3%) indicated a lack of familiarity with policies and programmes designed to facilitate combining elite sport and academic study . Knowing what is available is the first step toward using it.

Establish clear communication with coaches and teachers

Perhaps the simplest strategy is also the most frequently deferred. Discussing flexibility needs with departmental tutors and coaches early — before deadlines collide with competition schedules rather than after — builds the relational foundation that makes future requests for extensions or adjustments easier to raise. Emailing lecturers ahead of known absences, rather than explaining after the fact, signals responsibility rather than excuse-making; and it gives both parties time to find workable solutions.

Prioritise recovery and self-care

Recovery blocks belong in the schedule as deliberately as training sessions. Rest is equally necessary for physical and psychological adaptation to stress . Alongside structured recovery, dedicating time each day to activities that exist outside the athlete-student identity — meditation, music, walking, or whatever restores a sense of personal agency — matters considerably. The dual career demands much; it cannot also demand everything.

In summary, these strategies are most effective when pursued together and when the athlete is not navigating them alone. The support of practitioners, educators, coaches, and peers — coordinated rather than incidental — makes the difference between a dual career that depletes and one that develops the whole person.

Conclusion

Dual career athletes carry a particular kind of weight — one that single-focus peers rarely appreciate and that the broader sporting world too often underestimates. Academic pressures, athletic demands, limited recovery time, and insufficient mental health literacy combine to create real psychological risks; risks we, as sport psychology practitioners, cannot afford to overlook or minimise.

Throughout this article, we have explored the landscape of mental health challenges that dual career athletes face, from anxiety and depression to burnout, social isolation, and the uncertainties of career transition. We have examined why mental health literacy matters and how stigma quietly prevents many athletes from seeking the support they genuinely need. And we have outlined practical pathways forward — building robust support networks, accessing professional services early, communicating openly with coaches and educators, and protecting recovery time as seriously as training time.

What remains worth remembering, however, is that frameworks and strategies, much like theoretical orientations, do nothing on their own. It is the quality of relationships — between athletes and practitioners, between athletes and their coaches, families, and educators — that determines whether these strategies take root or remain words on a page. We are privileged as sport psychology practitioners to join with dual career athletes for a few moments on their life journey; to sit with them in the tension between two demanding worlds and help them find a way through.

The dual career path demands much. Done well, and with proper support, it prepares athletes for life in ways that single-focus paths rarely can. Helping athletes walk that path thoughtfully, and protecting their wellbeing along the way, is, in itself, a worthy endeavour.

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Key Takeaways

Dual career athletes face alarming mental health risks, with 22-23% experiencing moderate to severe anxiety or depression, and 43% scoring below positive mental well-being thresholds.

Key challenges include:

• Overlapping demands create burnout cycles. Athletic burnout spills into academic burnout through emotional regulation depletion and sleep quality deterioration, creating a destructive cycle that undermines both domains.

• Female athletes face disproportionate risks. Women report 1.42 times higher depression rates and 2.19 times higher disordered eating compared to male counterparts, requiring gender-specific support approaches.

• Mental health literacy remains critically low. Athletes struggle to distinguish normal fatigue from clinical symptoms and face stigma barriers that prevent help-seeking, particularly for non-performance mental health issues.

• Strategic support systems are essential. Building coordinated networks involving teammates, coaches, family, and mental health professionals, combined with flexible academic arrangements and structured recovery time, enables athletes to thrive in both domains.

• Adolescence represents peak vulnerability. Most mental health disorders emerge around age 19 during junior-to-senior transitions, making early intervention and preventive support crucial during this developmental period.

The dual career path demands intentional mental health protection through proactive support-seeking, clear communication with stakeholders, and prioritizing recovery alongside performance goals.

References