Travis Scheadler, a MSW/PhD student working with the Sport & Society Initiative and LiFEsports at The Ohio State University recently published a paper entitled “Relationships Between Athlete Activist Identities and Resilience in College Athletes.”

He surveyed 204 NCAA student-athletes on their athletic and activist identities as well as their stress control mindset (or how much they perceive stress to be negative or positive) and mental toughness.

Although many athletes, coaches, administrators, and fans worry engaging in social justice will distract from their performance, Scheadler’s findings show no significance between being an activist and stress control mindset or mental toughness.

Despite concerns that they would decrease, identifying as an athlete activist did not increase or decrease these indicators of resilience. The findings also highlight a relationship between stress control mindset and mental toughness.

Scheadler and his co-authors encouraged researchers to continue to investigate connections between psychological skills and athlete activism and to continue to explore stress control mindset in sport.

He can be contacted at scheadler.2@osu.edu.