Importance of Psychological Rest

Collegiate student-athletes experience a lifestyle of high demands. These demands stem from academics, sport participation, and social life. These high demands raise concern regarding mental health among athletes. Therefore, research concerned with reducing the effects of such demands on the mental well-being of athletes seems increasingly important. Researchers have previously concluded that rest (e.g., physical rest & mental rest) is a crucial component of promoting mental well-being in athletes. Researchers have further developed the concept of mental rest and provided information regarding specific psychological resting experiences to aid the attainment of mental rest. However, there are some gaps and limitations within the sport literature including: (a) a lack of assessments for measuring mental rest, (b) the degree to which athletes are obtaining psychological resting experiences, and (c) the extent to which feeling mentally rested impacts depressive symptoms and well-being. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of mental rest on depressive symptoms and well-being in athletes. The direct effect of demands (e.g., training demands & competition demands) on feeling mentally rested and the moderating effects of psychological resting experiences was also be examined. NCAA Division I female athletes completed an online questionnaire administered via Qualtrics comprised of a demographics survey, DISQ-Sport, perceptions of recent experiences of psychological rest questionnaire, perceived level of mental rest scale, CES-D, and MHC-SF. Multiple regression analyses were performed to test the hypothesized model. The results showed that emotional demands are significantly negatively related to perceived level of mental rest and that there was a significant moderation relationship between emotional demands, resting experience 2 (i.e., reduction in effortful thinking), and perceived level of mental rest. The results also revealed that student-athletes who reported feeling poorly rested mentally, experienced more depressive symptoms and lower levels of well-being.