Ward, Sarah Rachael (2020) Mental Health Awareness in Sport: Perceptions of Mental Health Training in Community Roles. A Grounded Theory. Masters thesis, York St John University.

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Abstract

Mental health is positively influenced by physical activity and sport, a well-documented relationship. Furthermore, this can be developed by a sports coach being able to support their participants who are experiencing mental ill health. However, mental health literacy within coaches is noted to be low, through possible lack of completed training. Therefore, this study employed a grounded theory approach to investigate mental health training within coaches, examining the impact and understanding of where the training lies within the sector. By adopting a grounded theory approach, it allowed a theory to emerge from the data, producing a concept specific to this study. 21 semi structured interviews were conducted with a range of personnel from community sport. The findings of this study discovered that there is a demand in the sector for those at grassroots level to receive mental health training, although it was observed that there is a lack of current training available. Furthermore, while both faceto-face and online training were considered, face-to-face training was deemed the preferred method to employ, relating it to a coach’s interactive nature. This study further concluded the possibility of implementing mental health training within coaching qualifications, as many participants argued for the application of the training to be a requirement from level one coaching qualifications upwards. This led to determine that the majority of the participants agreed that mental health training should be a mandatory requirement. However, despite this, the participants noted that the training was too expensive to be able to frequently implement, and this cost acted as a barrier to participation. The theory produced concluded that funding was the underlying factor which influences the implementation of mental health training. As argued, a lack of available and completed training within the sector is a possible consequence of absent investment directed towards mental health training.

Item Type:	Thesis (Masters)
Status:	Published
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GV Recreation Leisure > GV0557 Sports
School/Department:	School of Science, Technology and Health
URI:	https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/id/eprint/5296

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