(70) Mood Lifters for College Athletes: A Biopsychosocial Approach to Improving Mental Health for Student-Athletes

Purpose: Mood Lifters, a biopsychosocial mental wellness program, has been shown to improve mental health in adults and senior citizens.This study examines the efficacy of the adaptation of the original program, hypothesizing that the Mood Lifters - Athlete version would improve collegiate athletes' anxiety and depression.

Methods: Participants included fifty-two student-athletes recruited through The Invisible Opponent,  an organization focused on student-athlete mental health awareness, and directly through an R1 University Athletic Department. To determine the efficacy, repeated-measures analysis of variance was conducted to evaluate the change in self-reported assessments of well-being at the start and end of the intervention.

Results: Mood Lifters significantly improved participants' depression, anxiety, and self-esteem.

Conclusion: Student-athletes showed improvements in mental well-being across several measures. The findings should be replicated in a larger trial with a more diverse sample to fully understand the impact of Mood Lifters.

Practical Applications: With increases in student-athlete suicide and growing mental health concerns, novel strategies for improving mental health in college athletes should be prioritized. This study demonstrates the potential for Mood Lifters as a promising mental health program for student athletes. Other adapted programs, such as Mood Lifters for Seniors, have demonstrated the benefits of tailoring meeting content to fit the unique concerns and challenges faced by a specific population. Providing affordable and remote care led by peer leaders, Mood Lifters serves to increase the accessibility of mental healthcare to student-athletes, despite their busy schedules and heightened levels of stigmatization. With its modular format and ability to be frequently updated, Mood Lifters is a dynamic program that provides quality care to participants while also providing a safe and supportive environment. The hope of the Mood Lifter’s Athlete’s Edition was to not only help student-athletes overcome challenges associated with school and sports but to treat the whole individual, teaching skills that could be applied to one’s life outside of sports.

 


Acknowledgements: We would like to thank Dr. Eric Simon of the Research Innovation Core at the University of Michigan’s Eisenberg Family Depression Center for reviewing and editing this manuscript. We would like to thank the Eisenberg Family Depressions Center for funding the general Mood Lifters program and Athletes Brain Health for funding the development of this program.