University of North Texas 
Impact of COVID-19 on College Student Athletes' Health, Performance, and Psychological
Well-Being - Released July 8, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic and the cancellation of collegiate sports hit university athletic
departments in early March, 2020, closing down college and university campuses and
housing, sending hundreds of thousands of student athletes to live with family, friends,
relatives, and others, and altering the manner in which their classes were delivered
and experienced. College students, including athletes, are high-risk for mental health
concerns (e.g., depression, anxiety, suicide; Liu et al., 2018; ACHA-NCHA II, 2019),
which are likely to be exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Student-athletes
have been uniquely affected. Not only have they endured the general shutdown of higher
education and the broader societal impacts of COVID-19, they have had their sport
seasons canceled and identities shaken. Further, when student-athletes return to school,
they will be required to take on a level of risk, through their sport participation,
that every other college student will be able to minimize through physical distancing
and remote learning. Student-athletes will be required to navigate universities' modified
learning (and living) environments, and continue to represent their schools through
physical activities that will increase their risk of contracting COVID-19.
We designed this year-long research project to track student-athletes as they live through these events and thus determine the immediate and longer-term impacts on their coping and psychological well-being, health, and performance. Data from this longitudinal study will be available to all NCAA Division I, II, and III athletic departments so their personnel can understand what their student athletes may be experiencing and make evidence-based decisions on how to care for them as they return to campus and navigate the current realities of COVID-19 and playing collegiate sports. We hope that these reports will promote athletes' psychological, academic, and athletic well-being during this time of uncertainty and challenge.
Through the links below, individuals may access the executive summary as well as the
full report on the baseline data. We will continue to follow this group of 6000 student
athletes through the upcoming year and, through their responses, will have a window
into how these young adults are coping with this pandemic and the effect it had on
their mental health and psychological well-being. As we gather new data, we will make
update reports available here.
Executive Summary
Full Research Report
COVID-19 Infections and Impact: Summary Report - Released January 11, 2021
The purpose of this phase of our ongoing longitudinal study of college student athletes'
mental health and psychological well-being was to assess the extent to which they,
and their families, have been directly impacted by COVID-19. Understanding these impacts
can frame the stress they experience as they (and their families) navigate this pandemic.
Our data collection occurred during October 2020. We sent the study to all student athletes who had participated in our April/May assessment. The data collected in October represent the THIRD wave of our ongoing assessment of student athletes' mental health and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In this phase, just over 1,600 student athletes participated. In the pages that follow, we report our findings, which provide a framework for understanding how COVID-19 has impacted the lives of college student-athletes.