Mental Health in Student Athletes
Elite student-athletes face immense pressure balancing academics, training, and often part-time jobs.
The MHESA study examines how these stressors impact their mental health and the role of help-seeking behavior in this context.
The goal is to identify stressors and barriers to enable universities and sports organizations to develop targeted support measures. The survey will be conducted with over 1,500 athletes during the 2025 FISU World University Games, aiming to strengthen the well-being and performance of elite student-athletes in a sustainable way.
Funding: Own Funding
Principal Investigator/Contact: Felix Ehrlenspiel
Collaborators: Nils Olson & Thorsten Schulz, Lehrstuhl Präventive Pädiatrie, Christine Allwang & Tamara Frank, Klinik und Poliklinik für Psychosomatische Medizin und Psychotherapie, TUM Universitätsklinikum, Michael Zyskowski, Klinik und Poliklinik für Unfallchirurgie, TUM Universitätsklinikum
Self-Presentation Concerns in Sports
How do self-presentation concerns affect people in sport and exercise – and how can we measure them?
Individuals often feel pressure to present themselves in a certain way, whether in the gym, a recreational sports group, or a competitive setting.
These self-presentation concerns (SPC) can impact motivation, anxiety, and performance.
This project aims to develop and validate a concise, scientifically grounded questionnaire for measuring SPC across all physical activity levels – from elite athletes to everyday exercisers.
Completed steps:
- Review of existing SPC models and instruments
- Delphi study and item selection
- Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses resulting in the P-E-A-R model (Proficiency, Energy, Appearance, Reputation)
- IRT analysis to construct a statistically robust 12-item questionnaire
Next steps:
- Field testing and refinement of the questionnaire
- Linking SPC profiles to tailored, evidence-based sport psychology interventions
Funding: Own Funding
Principal Investigator/Contact: Patrick O’Mara, Felix Ehrlenspiel
Collaborators: Chris Mesagno, Victoria University, Australia
Psychological safety and Maltreatment in (elite) sports
How do psychological safety and experiences of maltreatment affect the (mental) health of athletes and coaches – and how can psychological safety be promoted in sports?
Competitive sport is a dynamic, highly demanding and performance-oriented environment that places great demands on everyone involved. In order to achieve top performance, act appropriately in pressure situations and build resilience, conditions and relationships are needed that support the development of athletic and mental skills as well as physical and mental health – for athletes and coaches alike.
This project investigates:
- the correlations between psychological safety and experiences of maltreatment in competitive sport,
- the interactions between these factors and the (mental) health of athletes and coaches,
- effective interventions to promote psychological safety in a sporting context.
The aim is to better understand the connections and interactions between psychological safety, experiences of abuse and mental health in athletes and coaches, and to be able to develop appropriate initiatives for action.
Funding: Own Funding
Principal Investigator/Contact: Julia Schwender
Collaborators: Felix Ehrlenspiel, Technische Universität München (GER); Gretchen Kerr, University of Toronto (CAN); Vanessa Wergin, University of Queensland (AUS)
Self-Talk During Injury Rehabilitation in Sports
For elite athletes, injuries are associated not only with physical but also psychological challenges, such as the fear of re-injury.
This gives the rehabilitation phase a significant role in the recovery process. How elite athletes cope with their injury-related situations is crucial for their healing. In this context, organic self-talk—spontaneous and naturally occurring verbalizations directed at oneself—comes into focus, as it can serve cognitive, emotional, and behavioral functions.
Therefore, this study aims to examine the functions and contexts of self-talk among elite athletes during rehabilitation.
Subsequently, practical transfer opportunities of the gained insights will be explored, and additional groups may be included. The findings can contribute to a better understanding of the mental processing of sports injuries and also offer diagnostic and therapeutic perspectives for the rehabilitation process.
Funding: Pending
Principal Investigator/Contact: Sarah Terhorst, Felix Ehrlenspiel
Collaborators: Julian Fritsch, Goethe Universität Frankfurt; Michael Zyskowski, Klinik und Poliklinik für Unfallchirurgie, TUM Universitätsklinikum
The Psychophysiology of Relaxation and Recovery
Chronic stress is detrimental to physical and mental health.
Antidotes to chronic stress are short-term relaxation and long-term recovery. Our research objectives are:
(1) to explain the psychophysiology of relaxation and recovery,
(2) to leverage these insights to personalize and optimize relaxation protocols, and
(3) to empower individuals with evidence-based, personalized relaxation practices to promote stress resilience and well-being.
We focus on breath-based approaches, such as breathing protocols and breathing meditation, to promote relaxation and stress resilience.
Funding: Own Funding and Anneliese-Pfannenberg Stiftung
Principal Investigator/Contact: Lukas Mebus
Collaborators: Felix Ehrlenspiel, Manuel Spitschan
Group decision-making in mountaineering
Mountaineering fascinates people around the world – regardless of age, culture, or prior experience.
When people go mountaineering, they rarely do so alone, but far more often in groups.
To successfully navigate the dynamic and hazardous mountain environment, groups must constantly engage in group decision-making processes. However, there is a widespread misconception that groups generally make better decisions than individuals.
In fact, groups are often subject to phenomena such as groupthink or group polarization, which can lead to poorer group decision outcomes. Moreover, decision-making in groups is a social process and is influenced by multiple, interwoven levels, including culture, organizations (e.g., the German Alpine Club), dyads, and individuals.
Unlike in other decision-making environments, poor decisions in mountaineering can have harmful or even fatal consequences. Unfortunately, little is known so far about the phenomenology, consequences, and influences of group decision-making in mountain sports.
Funding: Albrecht von Dewitz Stiftung
Principal Investigator/Contact: Svenja A. Wolf, Florida State University, USA; Anna Bergauer, TUM
Identifying Incentive Structures in Mountaineering
Nature-based sports such as climbing, diving, or paragliding are enjoying growing popularity. Unlike traditional club-based sports, they take place in unpredictable environments such as mountains, the oceans, or in the sky. These settings inherently involve the risk of serious or even life-threatening injury. At the same time, they offer the opportunity for unique experiences, including intense emotions and even states of transcendence.
This tension raises the question: What makes these activities so appealing, and what motivates people to engage in them?
Motivated behavior arises from the interaction between personal motives and situational incentives. Mountaineering, as a classic alpine sport, was selected as a case study for this investigation. It holds particular cultural and recreational significance in the Alpine region and, beyond the specific skills it demands and develops, it provides an exceptional experiential context in the natural mountain environment. While the personal motives of mountaineers have already been explored, the situational incentives of such activities have received little research attention so far.
The aim of this project is to identify the situational incentives in mountaineering through an exploratory interview study. This will lay the groundwork for the future development of an assessment tool for incentive structures. In addition, matching motives and incentives could help guide individuals toward selecting the most suitable nature-based sport for them.
Funding: Own Funding
Principal Investigator/Contact: Lisa Hepperle, Felix Ehrlenspiel
Function of the Cardiovascular System and Mental Health in Young Athletes
Young competitive athletes are already exposed to high levels of physical stress from training and competition, in addition to stress from school, developmental tasks, and social interaction.
In the DFG-funded MUCAYA plus project of the Chair of Preventive Pediatrics and the Chair of Exercise, Nutrition and Health, under the direction of Prof. Renate Oberhoffer-Fritz and Prof. Karsten Köhler, the development of cardiovascular functions and structures and their correlations with biochemical and metabolic parameters of young competitive athletes are being investigated.
In a connected project, we are investigating the MUCAYA participants’ heart rate variability as a parameter for the ability to regulate recovery and examining the connection to psycho-social factors such as resilience.
Funding: Own Funding
Principal Investigator/Contact: Felix Ehrlenspiel, Andrea Schittenhelm
Collaborators: Tobias Engl, Renate Oberhoffer, Thorsten Schulz, Lehrstuhl Präventive Pädiatrie, Professur für Bewegung, Ernährung und Gesundheit