Date of Project

5-2026

Document Type

Honors Thesis

School Name

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Psychology

Major Advisor

Dr. Felicia Smith

Second Advisor

Dr. Jean Lamont

Abstract

Mental health concerns among collegiate athletes have become an increasingly important issue, particularly for female athletes who face unique social and performance-related pressures. Understanding the factors that contribute to or protect against mental health stress is critical for improving athlete well-being. The purpose of this study was to examine whether sport type, team belonging, self-stigma, and athletic identity were associated with mental health stress among female collegiate athletes. Participants included 57 undergraduate female athletes from a small private university who completed self-report survey measuring team belonging, self-stigma, athletic identity, and mental health stress. Bivariate correlation results indicated that higher self-stigma was significantly associated with greater mental health stress, whereas higher team belonging was marginally associated with lower mental health stress. Sport type alone was not significantly related to mental health stress. A moderated moderation analysis further suggested that the relationship between sport type and mental health stress varied depending on levels of athletic identity and team belonging, with the full model explaining additional variance in mental health stress. Specifically, a significant interaction was observed between team type and athletic identity, whereas the interaction between team type and team belonging was marginally significant. These findings highlight the importance of social and psychological factors that may buffer against or contribute to mental health stress among female college athletes.

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