Meaning in life matters: A mediational investigation of stress resilience in collegiate athletes

Abstract

While there is evidence suggesting that athletes display greater resilience to stress than non-athletes, the presence of mixed results in the literature invites inquiries to better understand the manner in which being an athlete relates to the expression of stress resilience. Grounded in self categorization theory, we proposed that participation in athletics affords access to the socially relevant identity of “athlete” which can enhance perceived meaning in life and resilience to stress. We then proceeded to evaluate hypothesized the mediational effects that perceived meaning in life has on the relationship between athletic participation and stress resilience. Our sample consisted of 334 college students (158 athletes and 176 non-athletes) who completed questionnaires assessing meaning in life, stress resilience, strength of athlete identity, and a range of demographic and athletic participation information. We also collected data pertaining to athletic team success. Results broadly supported the hypothesis that meaning in life mediated the relationship between athletic participation and stress resilience, but neither strength of one’s athletic identity nor team success displayed relations with either meaning in life or stress resilience. Therefore, while athletes did display greater levels of meaning in life and greater stress resilience, and while meaning in life did mediate the relationship between athletic participation and stress resilience, the specific predictions of self categorization theory were not supported with the present data. Future work is encouraged to utilize a broader sample of athletes from a range of competitive levels to more fully evaluate the specific predictions of self categorization theory to explain the observed relationship between athletic participation and stress resilience, while also controlling for potential confounding variables such as physical fitness.