ABSTRACT
Within the demanding environment of elite sport, athletes experience a continuum of mental health outcomes ranging from wellbeing to poor mental health. This chapter reviews targeted outcomes of poor athlete mental health including depression, anxiety, and related outcomes, with a critical focus on the relevance of athletic identity to their occurrence. Effective treatment of these outcomes is discussed via a narrative of representative athlete cases of poor athlete mental health based on the experiences of Dr Jeni Shannon, a sport psychologist who works with American collegiate student-athletes. The relevance of athletic identity to the diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of poor athlete mental health is described with the goal of bridging the gap between theory/research and practice. Relevant theories of athlete identity development and mental health showcase empirical evidence of identity foreclosure as a unique risk factor for poor athlete mental health within the social environment of competitive sport.
