Research Impact: Dr. Tadhg MacIntyre and Dr. Deirdre O’Shea, both of the Health Research Institute at UL, recently edited a research topic on mental health in sport in the Open Access Journal Frontiers in Psychology: Movement Science and Sport Psychology which highlighted the need for increased psychological literacy in elite sport. International co-editors were Prof. Marc Jones (Staffordshire University), Prof. Judy Van Raalte and Prof. Britt Brewer (Springfield College) and Dr. Paul McCarthy (Glasgow Caledonian University). Twelve original articles and seven commentaries with a combined total of 53 authors from across three continents provided a snapshot of global challenges for elite athletes mental health and well-being. The Editors contend that future mental health surveys should be include measures of mental health stigma, help-seeking behaviors, and attitudes toward service provision. A further recommendation is the need to promote a broader concept of psychological literacy to stakeholders in sport, one that advances beyond mental health literacy and instead promotes well-being for all. A major topic of interest in contemporary sport, the online research topic homepage received over 85,000 views and almost 10,000 downloads of the research articles were recorded. An e-book is currently being produced which will act as a touchstone for researchers in the field.
Macintyre, T.E., Jones, M., Brewer, B.W., Van Raalte, J., O’Shea, D. and McCarthy, P.J., 2017. Mental health challenges in elite sport: Balancing risk with reward. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, p.1892. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01892
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