ArticleBMJ open sport & exercise medicine2023
Mental health help-seeking preferences and behaviour in elite male rugby players.
Article in BMJ open sport & exercise medicine, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 8 citations in OpenAlex.
- Sustainability of top-performance athletes' mental health and career retirement support services: European major sports organizations' perspective.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2026Article
- Sustainable Career Transitions and Mental Health Support in Elite Sport: A Systematic Review of Evidence and Practices.Sports (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Athletes' access to, attitudes towards and experiences of help-seeking for mental health: a scoping review.BMJ open · 2025Article
- Mental health help-seeking knowledge, attitudes and behaviour among male elite rugby players: the role of masculine health-related values.BMJ open sport & exercise medicine · 2025Article
- The 5Rs of Rugby: A qualitative evaluation of the development, delivery, and experience of a mental health literacy and social norms intervention with elite rugby union players in Ireland.PLOS mental health · 2025Article
- Prevalence and Factors Associated with Mental Health Complaints in Japanese Collegiate Athletes.Sports (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Objectives: Mental health symptoms and mental illnesses are common in elite athletes. There is an urgent need to develop care systems to support the mental health of elite athletes. Understanding elite athletes' preferences in mental health help seeking can help explore strategies to develop such systems. Therefore, this study aims to investigate with whom/where elite athletes feel comfortable discussing mental health concerns and seeking help. Methods: We analyse data from 219 Japanese male rugby players out of 612 players (565 Japanese, 47 foreigners) aged 18 and over who belong to the Japan Rugby Players Association using a cross-sectional design and an anonymous, web-based, self-administered questionnaire. In the questionnaire, the players are asked to rate on a 5-point Likert scale how comfortable they feel talking about their mental health concerns with affiliation/team staff, family/relatives, friends, mental health professionals, rugby-related seniors and teammates. Analysis of variance and Dunnett's test are performed to detect differences in their preferences for sources of help. Results: Dunnett's test shows that the mean scores for preferring to consult affiliation/team staff are significantly lower than for all the other groups (p<0.001), indicating that players are reluctant to seek help for mental health concerns from affiliation/team staff. Fewer players sought help from affiliation/team staff or mental health professionals than from other groups. Conclusion: Regarding mental health concerns, for elite male rugby players as elite athletes, it can be difficult to ask for help or talk to team staff.
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