Student Athletes Struggle With Mental Health During Pandemic

By Emily Bramanti

JRN100 Staff Reporter

COVID-19 took its toll on mental health, especially for student athletes.

Abby Remick, the junior captain on the Stonehill College volleyball team, had to find a way to cope with not being able to play with her team. She felt anxious and lost when the pandemic stopped her from playing volleyball for several months last year. Like many students, sports and exercise helped her deal with stress.

“Not being able to play the sport I love has affected me in so many ways. Playing volleyball was an outlet for me to step away from everything that was going on, and since the COVID-19 took that away I was struggling” said Remick. 

Sports are a way for people to get their emotions out in a healthy way. Exercise is proven to create a positive impact on mental health issues. Not only in the mental aspect that sports brings, but it brings a sense of community that was taken away during the pandemic.

For Remick she had a hard time dealing with her stress and found that she was more anxious because she was unable to play volleyball. There were times where she would find herself having no motivation to do her homework and other daily tasks.

“Another thing that the pandemic took away was being able to see my teammates. I was unable to see them for close to six months and they are my best friends so it was really hard to go that whole time without seeing them” said Remick.

In a study titled Challenges and Burden of the Coronavirus 2019, conducted by Jorg Fegert, they had people participate in an online study regarding their mental health during the pandemic. Fifty-four percent of people that participated at the start of the pandemic rated the impact of the pandemic on their mental health as moderate to severe and often stated that that they were experiencing depressive symptoms and anxiety. The state of the world imposed a multifaceted problem on students that included the impact from socio-ecological and the new environment that children are in have many effects on them as well.

During the start of the pandemic, many people were laid off from their jobs and athletes could not participate in their sports. Students from kindergarten through college had to do remote learning, and the stress of staying at home affected many because they were unable to see their friends or participate in activities.

Students could not be involved in activities that had been part of their daily routines, such as playing on the playground, going on playdates, participating in sports, and visiting with family and friends.

Younger children had a negative impact from this because communication with friends is an important part of their well-being. The loss of daily structure puts these students at a disadvantage because they are unable to continue their development in a normal nature. Due to remote learning, students could not make connections with other students as easily. During in person class a student can learn many things about a fellow classmate, such as their sense of humor. That is taken away because remote learning is a very structured environment where small side conversations are unable to occur.

“Due to the students being unable to see their friends in a structured or unstructured manner makes them unable to develop their social and emotional skills” said mental health professional Elizabeth O’Brien. 

The loss of communication with friends and loss of in-person schooling, now moved these students in an environment at home that may not be the best place for them to succeed. Being around one’s family created an immense amount of stress due to parents trying to work from home and take care of the schooling for their children. Parents also have the job of explaining the pandemic to their children and about death which places a large amount of stress on them.

The stress is continued on to the financial pressures that were created due to the pandemic. Many people were laid off and unable to provide in the ways they were before. During economic recessions there has been connections between unemployment and increased rates of several mental disorders. In this recession there has been an added factor that has the risk factor of poor mental health in children.

“The mental health issues in adults typically stems from there is no balance or separation from work life and home life. They try to balance it all and that creates an intense amount of stress that they are unable to handle all at once” said O’Brien.

This stress from the parents is then displaced on to their children. Students are now in their house 24/7 where they might not have their own place to work. They also may not have access to the materials that they need to be more successful such as a laptop or on a simpler stand point color pencils.

As a college student, Remick found that she needed to have a plan to help her push through the pandemic. Without organized sports, she had to do something else. She found that she could not sit and wait for change and she needed to take better care of herself.

“Even though I could not play volleyball with my teammates, I knew that exercise was something that was helpful for me. I would work out almost every day to keep in great shape and I saw a change in my mental health from when I was not working out at the start of the pandemic” said Remick.

O’Brien said it can be difficult to find that motivation to workout in isolation, while organized sports offer structure and schedules.