Measuring Well-Being in Sport Performers: Where are We Now and How do we Progress?

The importance of optimal well-being and mental health in elite athletes has received increasing attention and debate in both the academic and public discourse. Despite the number of challenges and risk factors for mental health and well-being recognised within the performance lifestyle of elite ath...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sports medicine (Auckland) 2020-07, Vol.50 (7), p.1255-1270
Main Authors: Giles, Samuel, Fletcher, David, Arnold, Rachel, Ashfield, Arabella, Harrison, Joanna
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Athlete Health & Wellness
Athletes
Athletes - psychology
Debates
Humans
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Mental disorders
Mental Health
Mental health care
Quantitative psychology
Researchers
Review
Review Article
Risk factors
Scholars
Social interactions
Sports - psychology
Sports Medicine
Surveys and Questionnaires - standards
Well being
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Summary:The importance of optimal well-being and mental health in elite athletes has received increasing attention and debate in both the academic and public discourse. Despite the number of challenges and risk factors for mental health and well-being recognised within the performance lifestyle of elite athletes, the evidence base for intervention is limited by a number of methodological and conceptual issues. Notably, there exists an increasing emphasis on the development of appropriate sport-specific measures of athlete well-being, which are required to underpin strategies targeted at the protection and enhancement of psychosocial functioning. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to review psychometric issues in well-being research and discuss the implications for the measurement of well-being in sport psychology research. Drawing on the broader literature in related disciplines of psychology, the narrative discusses four key areas in the scale development process: conceptual and theoretical issues, item development issues, measurement and scoring issues, and analytical and statistical issues. To conclude, a summary of the key implications for sport psychology researchers seeking to develop a measure of well-being is presented.
ISSN:0112-1642
1179-2035
DOI:10.1007/s40279-020-01274-z