Evaluating Emotional Support Needs of Young Athletes: From Stress Response to Resilience

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-954-4_9How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Emotional Wellbeing; Sports Psychology; Mental Health; Adolescence

Abstract

As India prepares its adolescent athletes for a demanding line-up of elite sports events—including the 2026 Youth Olympic Games (Dakar), the 2026 Asian Games (Aichi-Nagoya), the 2027 South Asian Games, and the 2028 Summer Olympics (Los Angeles)—emotional well-being emerges as a vital pillar of high-performance readiness. The intense physical, academic, and psychological demands placed on young athletes make it imperative to understand and support their emotional health. Emotional well-being is an important aspect of the all-around development of teenage athletes, yet it remains largely neglected in sports training. Although participation in athletics strengthens athletes in discipline, resilience, and concentration, there are cases where young athletes struggle psychologically. While mental health is increasingly emphasized in high-performance training environments, there is still limited understanding of what young athletes need to maintain their inner stability. The more this aspect is overlooked, the poorer the chances for achieving both high performance and happiness. The aim of this study was to conduct a detailed needs analysis of mental health support for adolescent athletes training at the National Institute of Sports (NIS), Patiala, India. The study also explored the athletes’ life experiences and the availability and effectiveness of current mental health support systems through interviews. Findings suggest that young athletes, despite psychological advantages gained through sport, often suffer from distress, worry, and overtraining symptoms. A majority of participants expressed the need for various formal emotional health interventions, including professional counseling, stress management programs, and emotional coaching. This study stresses the importance of integrating psychological well-being into sports training. By highlighting significant mental health concerns and support needs, this research contributes to the ongoing conversation on athlete well-being. Ultimately, the knowledge gained promotes a holistic and sustainable approach to adolescent athletic development by informing policy suggestions, training reforms, and the inclusion of mental health resources within sports academies.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Dilkirat Sarna
AU  - Neeta Mhavan
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/12/29
TI  - Evaluating Emotional Support Needs of Young Athletes: From Stress Response to Resilience
BT  - Proceedings of the Positive Psychology 2.0 International Conference 2025 (PP 2.0 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 121
EP  - 134
SN  - 2667-128X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-954-4_9
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-954-4_9
ID  - Sarna2025
ER  -