Emotional Disorders Of Chinese Elite Athletes: A Qualitative Study

Elite athletes refer to the professional athletes who have achieved the top three in national competitions,the top six in Asian competitions and the top eight in world competitions.Emotional disorders,also known as mood disorders,are characterized by significant and lasting changes in emotion or mood.According to the actual situation of the subjects,this study mainly studies the following types of emotional disorders: depression and related disorders,bipolar disorder and anxiety and related disorders.The pressure and risk that elite athletes bear in daily training and competitive competition is something that ordinary groups,even ordinary athletes can't understand.On the one hand,they should adjust their body state to play the sport to the extreme,on the other hand,they should bear huge external pressure.These factors will be emotional obstacles for athletes.It helps to understand the causes and coping mechanisms of psychological diseases such as emotional disorders of athletes through qualitative research,and hopes to improve the mental health of athletes.In this study,7 elite athletes with outstanding performance and 4 sports psychologists with ten years' experience in sports psychology were interviewed in the form of semi-structured interview.This paper studies the interview content with the theme analysis method,and finally comes to five dimensions related to emotional disorders,which are: the causes of emotional disorders;the performance of emotional disorders;the self-response of emotional disorders;the rehabilitation of emotional disorders.The conclusion of this study is as follows:(1)the causes of emotional disorders of athletes are generally complex,among which the most important are the harmony of athlete coach relationship,the intimacy of family relationship and the occurrence of stress events.(2)Athletes lack good methods and measures in dealing with emotional disorders.(3)The environment of athletes and coaches is lack of correct understanding of mental health,and there is a widespread stigmatization emotional disorders.(4)The main positive effects on rehabilitation are professional help and the support and company of important others.(5)Athletes can not get timely and effective intervention when they encounter emotional disorders.To sum up,it is necessary to strengthen the popularization of psychological knowledge of athletes and coaches,and the psychological service system of sports teams needs to be improved.