Warning Over ‘Increasing’ Suicides Among US College Athletes

Suicide rates among US college student-athletes have doubled in the last two decades, a new study has found.

The findings, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, analyzed suicide rates between July 1, 2002, and June 30, 2022, among athletes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). They found that rates rose by 36 percent. This made suicide the second most likely cause of death following accidents, the study reported.

When carrying out the study, researchers looked at athletes by sex, age, race, division, the sport they played as well as the time of year and days of the week.

Cause of death for each athlete was assessed across all categories. Each death was labeled as murder, accident, suicide, drug/alcohol overdose or medical cause.

Over the 20 years studied, 128 of the 1102 athletes died from suicide. This is around 11.5 percent. Most of these, (98 individuals, or 77 percent) were men. Thirty of them were women.

This was found to be the case across all ages; however, the average age of those who took their own life was around 20.

“Athletes are generally thought of as one of the healthiest populations in our society, yet the pressures of school, internal and external performance expectations, time demands, injury, athletic identity and physical fatigue can lead to depression, mental health problems and suicide,” the authors wrote in the study.

“Athletes may also experience harassment and abuse within their sport, including psychological abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, hazing and cyberbullying from the public and members of their team including peer athletes, coaches and members of the entourage.”

They found that the number of men who took their own life increased from 31 in the first decade, to 67 in the second half. Female suicides also more than doubled from 9 in the first 10 years to 21 in the second half of the period studied.

There were other factors the researchers noticed when assessing the data. Most suicides were found to occur on Mondays and Tuesdays, while the average number of suicides between June and August was 6.7 a month. During the rest of the year, however, average numbers were 12 per month across the entire 20 years.

The authors note in the study that the NCAA has renewed efforts to help those struggling with mental health.

“In the last decade, the NCAA has placed increasing emphasis on the mental health and wellbeing of student-athletes, publishing a consensus document on mental health best practices noting that mental health concerns among student-athletes are similar to their non-athlete peers,” the authors write in the study.

However, despite this, the authors still note that suicide rates are increasing.

“Additional mental health resources including efforts to raise awareness, screening for early risk identification, training coaches and support staff on how to identify athletes at risk and providing access to mental health providers trained in sport psychology are examples of ways to help prevent suicide in this population,” the authors write in the study.

If you or someone you know is considering suicide, contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988, text “988” to the Crisis Text Line at 741741 or go to 988lifeline.org.