A complete mental health is not merely about the absence of mental illness. Yet, surprisingly few studies in a sport context have focused on understanding what contributes to positive mental health and high levels of well-being in athletes and coaches. Dr Kurtis Pankow recently completed a PhD dissertation that sought answers to this question. He visited Meaningful Sport podcast to share findings from this exciting research.
There have been many stories in the media about athletes’ struggles during and after their careers, and sport psychology scholars have dedicated extensive efforts to understand athlete mental health in the past few years. However, developing knowledge that can (hopefully) help prevent mental health struggles is not the same as developing knowledge that can contribute to promoting well-being and flourishing. Models such as Keyes’s (2002) Mental Health Continuum are useful in distinguishing these issues and has informed Kurtis’s work on these questions.
Specifically, keeping in mind the topic of this podcast, we connect the question of what constitutes well-being with existential psychology and meaningfulness. Is meaningfulness related to well-being? Is it possible to have high meaning in life and work but still be miserable?
Part 1 here:
In the second part, we take a good look into the studies that comprised Kurtis’s PhD dissertation. In addition to a brief overview to the methodological approaches used, the key topics of the conversation include:
# How do coaches and athletes find balance?
# Can we find “too much” meaning in sport?
# Should we be concerned if athletes wish to spend time off from sport?
Part 2 here:
Dr Kurtis Pankow completed his PhD dissertation titled “Exploring Flourishing in Canadian University Sport” at the University of Alberta. He now works as a postdoctoral researcher at Queens University on a project focused on student mental health.
Here are some links to the research we discuss in the episode:
Mental health protective factors among flourishing Canadian women university student-athletes
You can follow Kurtis on Twitter @K_Pankow.