Student-athletes face a variety of stressors and adversities that become hurdles in both their personal, athletic, and academic lives. This study explores the relationship between resilience, cohesion, and stress amongst community college student-athletes. Community college student-athletes (N=49) completed an online survey using the Group Environment Questionnaire, College Student-Athletes' Life Stress Scale, and Brief Resilience Scale. T-tests were used to compare differences among these variables by gender. Student-athletes reported higher levels of resilience and cohesion, which were related to lower levels of stress. This study illustrates how resilience, belonging, and coach/peer supports help decrease levels of perceived stress within the community college student-athlete population.

This study considered the perceptions of college students regarding the effect of their participation in high school athletics upon their resilience. This study explored the effect of athletic participation on students' academic achievement, capacity to overcome adversity, and ability to cope with stress. This study was conducted in a private, coeducational university in suburban, southeastern Pennsylvania. Seventy-five undergraduate college students who matriculated to this university and attended public, private, or parochial high schools participated. The results of this study suggested that participation in athletics supported most participants' academic achievement, developed their capacity to overcome challenges and adversity, and positively affected their ability to manage stress. The themes that emerged in this research study, when considered within the context of prior research related to protective factors and resilience, suggested that participation in athletic activities promoted resilience among these students.

Resilience in sport has been defined as "the role of mental processes and behavior in promoting personal assets and protecting an individual from the potential negative effect of stressors" (Fletcher & Sarkar, 2012, p. 675). Fletcher and Sarkar's (2012) found that various psychological factors were indicative of athlete resilience such as achievement motivation, social support, focus, confidence, and positive personality. To date, sport psychology researchers have dominantly examined resilience as an individual construct (e.g., Galli & Vealey, 2008; Fletcher & Sarkar; Wagstaff, Sarkar, Davidson, & Fletcher, 2016). However, it is also important to consider how athlete resilience might develop and operate in relationships with important others (e.g., coach). Narrative inquiry (Smith & Sparkes, 2009) was used in this study to explore the stories of seven NCAA Division I student-athletes' lived experiences of how the coach-athlete relationship influenced their ability to be resilient through major stress. Semi-structured interviews were conducted that asked participants about their respective coach-athlete relationship, how power and sociocultural factors influenced this relationship, and in turn, influenced student-athlete resilience. Braun and Clarke's (2006) thematic analysis was used for data analysis, which revealed the following themes: (a) Student-athlete core resilience, (b) The W.O.A.T., (c) The G.O.A.T., (d) W.O.AT. coach behaviors, (e) G.O.A.T. coach behaviors, (f) The W.O.A.T., the G.O.A.T., and student-athlete resilience, (g) The effect of coach major stress on student-athlete resilience, and (h) The relational shift: From bad to better, good to great. It is hoped that the findings of this study will be used as a powerful method from which coaches can emotionally connect with the participants' stories in order to better understand how they might operate within the coach-athlete relationship to influence student-athlete resilience.

Negative mental health outcomes are becoming increasingly prevalent in college students. Depression, anxiety, and stress have been previously shown to negatively impact academic motivation and performance. Resilience and social support can serve as preventative factors to protect students from this adversity. Resilience is a dynamic process that changes based on environmental factors. An individual’s perceptions of social support can be influenced by friends, family, and significant others. Another possible influence in the perception of social support and resilience is race/ethnicity. Social support especially has been viewed differently based on culture. The purpose of this study was to examine the links between resilience, social support, academic success, mental health, and race/ethnicity. The results showed that resilience significantly predicted both stress and depression but failed to predict anxiety. Also, resilience was a mediator in the relationship between depression and academic performance. This study was limited in the scope of participants both in number and location. Future research should focus on further examination of resilience and its connection to academic success, as well as interventions to improve it.

Objective: College student-athletes face unique stressors at a developmental stage marked by heightened prevalence of mental health problems such as anxiety, depression, and disordered eating. Given the value ascribed to membership in small groups, perceptions of group cohesion may be a critical aspect of athletes social environment for promoting mental health in sports teams. The purpose of the current study was to determine the association between perceived group cohesion and self-reported perceptions of anxiety, depression, and disordered eating. Methods: Athletes (N =124) were recruited within their sport teams to complete an electronic survey. Participants completed measures of group cohesion (i.e., attraction to group-task, attraction to group-social, group integration-social, group integration-task), social support, anxiety, depression, and disordered eating. Results: Preliminary analyses generally revealed weak bivariate correlations between group cohesion and the three dependent variables, although depression had a moderate correlation with two cohesion subscales: attachment to group-task and group integration-social. Linear regressions examined the extent that four subscales of group cohesion predicted mental health issues. Whereas group cohesion was not a significant predictor of anxiety, depression and disordered eating behaviors were significantly predicted by group cohesion. Increases in cohesion were linked to lower perceptions of both depression and disordered eating with the strongest significant predictors being attachment to grouptask and group integrationtask. Conclusions: These findings highlight group cohesion as a predictor of mental health issues, and depression in particular. While these findings are preliminary, they point toward the potential role of group environments within mental health interventions.