Resilience in Female Athletes: The Great Debate

The Resilience Debate

Resilience has become somewhat of a buzz word recently. Often found on social media apps or in pop culture podcasts, the construct of resilience has permeated all facets of society leaving folks wondering, “What is resilience?” Once thought of as a personal trait, commonly known definitions of resilience include the ability to “bounce back” in the face of adversity and having the “survivor” mentality. While these may be the definitions cited most often in pop culture, science has yet to reveal what resilience looks like. More so, further research is needed to comprehend resilience for certain populations, including female athletes.

Setting the Stage

Despite its frequency in pop culture, the definition of resilience remains elusive. What we do know is that resilience can be viewed as both physiological and psychological. As part of the Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance, Pennington Biomedical Research Center is collaborating with the Female Athlete Program at Boston Children’s Hospital, LSU Department of Kinesiology, and LSU Athletics to conduct two studies aimed at creating clarity regarding the concept of resilience for female athletes. In the first study, the research investigates topics such as emotion regulation, experiential avoidance, intolerance of uncertainty, sleep, low energy availability, injury history, contextual body image, excessive training, social support, and mood using questionnaire data. To generate a comprehensive understanding, the second study will include exercise testing at three time points over the course of the year during varying academic and athletic stress levels, to examine biomarkers of physical resilience and immune reserve.

A Starting Point

Preliminary data is encouraging demonstrating that resilience can be multifaceted for female athletes. Psychologically, resilience in this population is indicated by enhanced ability to endure distress; increased positive feelings about their bodies in and out of sport; and greater positive social exchanges with others. Physiologically, female athlete resilience is hampered by increase in stress levels (leading to higher levels of burnout) resulting in less total work and power output. While the physiological results may seem concerning, it demonstrates the importance of these studies to identify ways to boost resilience and performance while reducing burnout, stress, depression, and anxiety for female athletes in the future.

If you want to participate in the latest resilience study, CLICK HERE.

Everyday Resilience

As noted, pop culture deems resilience as a personal trait or inherent quality (i.e., either you have it, or you don’t). However, this is simply not the case! Researchers have come to understand that resilience can be built through conscious cultivation of certain skills. While the female athlete resilience research mentioned above is still in progress (stay tuned for the outcomes!), included below are various evidence-based practices that can be used in everyday life to help foster resilience:

1.      GRATITUDE – creating a gratitude journal is a beautiful way to start a practice of gratitude. Each day take a few minutes to write down what you’re grateful for. As you get accustomed to your gratitude practice, work to incorporate it into your athletics. Before you start training, verbally state that you’re thankful for the opportunity to participate in sport.

2.      SELF-COMPASSION - be mindful of your self-talk both in and out of athletics. Create a T-chart and list five negative self-talk phrases that come to mind (either in or out of sport) in the left-hand column. Then identify how you could edit these phrases to offer yourself more self-compassion and gentleness. Write those in the right-hand column. Refer to this chart when you’re having a difficult time cultivating self-compassion.

3.      BEING IN THE MOMENT/MINDFULNESS – mindfulness can take various forms including conscious breathing, mindful movement, and guided meditation. Try one or all three of these to see which best suits your disposition! More so, mindfulness can take place during sport through affirmations during training. Try using an affirmation during a motionless exercise (e.g., a plank) or when there is a pause in training (e.g., waiting for your turn during a drill).

Contributing Authors: Kelsey Varzeas, PhD & Nicole Wesley, MPA

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