College Student-Athlete Holistic Wellbeing: The Influences of Early Childhood Experiences and Youth Sport Participation

Background: College student-athletes face significant mental health challenges at higher rates compared to non-athletes, often stemming from the combined physical, psychological, and environmental demands of sport participation. Existing studies on college student-athletes have largely approached mental health from a deficit-oriented perspective, emphasizing risk factors, dysfunction, and pathology. Conversely, social work strength-based perspectives offer opportunities to fully understand person-in-environment dynamics and how developmental contexts shape holistic wellbeing over time. Holistic wellbeing has been regarded as a multidimensional construct encompassing emotional, psychological, social, and developmental functioning within an individual’s environment. Particularly, early childhood experiences, in conjunction with youth sport participation, may play a critical, formative role in shaping long-term wellbeing. Guided by ecological systems and developmental contextual frameworks foundational to social work, this study examines how early childhood experiences and youth sport participation affect the multidimensional aspects of holistic wellbeing.

Method: Cross-sectional data were collected from 95 college student-athletes at a university in the Midwest region of the United States. Most participants were in their freshman year (n = 35, 36.8%), and the majority identified as female (n = 61, 64.2%). A total of 13 sports were represented, with the most represented being women’s cross country/track and field (n = 22), baseball (n = 15), and football (n = 9). The Positive Childhood Experiences Scale (PCE) and Youth Experience Survey for Sport (YES-S) were used to measure early childhood experiences. Holistic wellbeing, including emotional, social, psychological, and spiritual wellbeing, was measured by Mental Health Continuum-Short Form and Interfaith Spirituality Scale. Descriptive analyses and bivariate correlations were conducted. A multivariate linear regression model was developed to examine the relative contribution of experiences to holistic wellbeing.

Results: Significant associations were found between PCE and three aspects of holistic wellbeing, namely emotional, psychological, and spiritual wellbeing. Similarly, YES-S was found to be significantly correlated with social, psychological, and spiritual wellbeing. The correlation between PCE and social wellbeing was near significant (p = 0.06) and nonsignificant for YES-S and emotional wellbeing. For the multivariate regression model, modified M-estimation was used due to multivariate normality violations. Pillai multivariate tests indicate that both PCE (F[4, 83] = 4.11, p < 0.01) and YES-S (F[4, 83] = 3.67, p < 0.01) were significant predictors of holistic mental wellbeing globally. Together, PCE and YES-S explained 40.4% of the variance in holistic wellbeing.

Conclusions and Implications: The findings of this study underscore the importance of sport social workers adopting a life-course, strengths-based perspective for understanding the holistic wellbeing of college student-athletes. Although cross-sectional data warrant caution for causal inference, study findings suggest that early childhood experiences, particularly positive experiences coupled with youth sport participation, may contribute to a strong foundation for holistic wellbeing in student-athletes. Sport social work practitioners can work with athletes across sport contexts, coaches, athletic administrators, and/or mental health professionals. These practitioners should consider the broader developmental experiences of athletes when designing interventions and support systems so as to not only better identify both risk and protective factors but also implement more contextually responsive, person-in-environment approaches to care.