Student Athletes: A Case Study

Introduction: The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) requires student athletes to maintain a 2.5 grade point average in at least nine academic credits to be eligible to compete in their respective sport (NCAA, 2011). A study conducted in 2004 found academic performance to be the leading cause of stress amongst university students (DeBerard, Spielmans, & Julka, 2004). According to Anderson and Williams’ (1988) stress injury model, athletes experience more physical injuries during periods of high stress (Anderson & Williams, 1988). In addition to the fatigue associated with training and practice, student athletes face considerable amounts of academic related stress given the significant number of hours required for practice, and
Life stress was defined as the extent major life events (e.g. job loss, death of a loved one) had been experienced over the last 12 months (Petrie et al., 2014). Again using an ordinal scale, players anonymously appraised events (extremely negative (-4) to extremely positive (+4)) to determine if life stress prior to the season was related to injuries occurring during the season (Petrie et al., 2014). Results indicated recovery time was longer for athletes who had reported experiencing high levels of life stress (Petrie et al., 2014). Additionally, the survey revealed being in a dominant role within the team (e.g. starter) was found to be a life stress for athletes (Petrie et al., 2014). This may relate to research conducted by Mann et al. (2016), who found starters to be 3 times more likely to be affected by periods of HAS in comparison to athletes who did not play regularly (Mann et al., 2016). While it may be argued that athletes in dominant roles within teams are exposed to more playing time and are at a greater risk of injury based on increased participation, Anderson and Williams’ stress injury model (1988) also supports that periods of HAS could be impacting this relationship as stress increases (Anderson & Williams,