{
  "abstract": "Objective To determine if paediatric athletes exhibit differences in positive screenings on the Sport Mental Health Assessment Tool (SMHAT-1) compared with adults.Methods Team USA Olympic and Paralympic paediatric athletes ≤21 years (n=589; 58.8% female; age=19.5±1.7 years) completed the SMHAT-1 between January 2021 and September 2024. A comparative sample of Team USA adult athletes (n=493, 54.2% female; age=27.3±4.9 years) matched for sex and sport was randomly sampled, and the percentage of athletes with a positive screening on each questionnaire was calculated. χ 2 analysis compared the proportion of positive screenings between paediatric and adult samples. Piecewise linear regression assessed the association between age and total questionnaire scores.Results The proportion of positive screenings was lower for paediatric athletes for the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test Consumption (AUDIT-C) (χ 2(1)=21.2, p<0.001) and Athlete Psychological Strain Questionnaire (APSQ) (χ2(1)=4.47, p=0.034). Increasing age of paediatric athletes was associated with higher AUDIT-C (β=0.41, p<0.001) and APSQ scores (β=0.35, p<0.001); however, a negative deviation was observed in AUDIT-C (β=−0.44, p<0.001) and APSQ scores (β=−0.38, p=0.002) among adults. Further, increasing age of paediatric athletes was associated with increased General Anxiety Disorder-7 (β=0.14, p=0.045) and ASSQ (β=0.12, p=0.029) scores; however, there was no significant deviation from this age trend in adults for either score (p>0.05).Conclusion Paediatric athletes produce a similar proportion of positive screenings to adults on subcomponents of the SMHAT-1, but they show a lower proportion of positive screenings for alcohol misuse and psychological strain. The changes in SMHAT-1 subcomponent scores among paediatric athletes warrant continued exploration to determine how the interaction of psychosocial development and elite sport may impact mental health.",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Sports Medicine, United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee, Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA",
        "United States Coalition for the Prevention of Illness and Injury in Sport, Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA",
        "Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA"
      ],
      "name": "Ashley N Triplett"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Sports Medicine, United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee, Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA",
        "United States Coalition for the Prevention of Illness and Injury in Sport, Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA",
        "Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA"
      ],
      "name": "Travis Anderson"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Sports Medicine, United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee, Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA",
        "United States Coalition for the Prevention of Illness and Injury in Sport, Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA",
        "Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA"
      ],
      "name": "Eric G Post"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Sports Medicine, United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee, Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA"
      ],
      "name": "Jessica Bartley"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Texas Children’s Hospital, Houston, Texas, USA",
        "Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA"
      ],
      "name": "Jeffrey S Shilt"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Texas Children’s Hospital, Houston, Texas, USA",
        "Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA"
      ],
      "name": "Eric L Dugan"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Sports Medicine, United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee, Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA",
        "United States Coalition for the Prevention of Illness and Injury in Sport, Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA"
      ],
      "name": "Amber Donaldson"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Sports Medicine, United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee, Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA",
        "United States Coalition for the Prevention of Illness and Injury in Sport, Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA",
        "Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA",
        "Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver, Colorado, USA"
      ],
      "name": "Jonathan Finnoff"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Kinesiology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA",
        "Department of Kinesiology, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, North Carolina, USA",
        "School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK",
        "Department of Orthopedics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA"
      ],
      "name": "William M Adams"
    }
  ],
  "title": "A comparative analysis of the Sport Mental Health Assessment Tool (SMHAT-1) between paediatric and adult Olympic and Paralympic athletes",
  "uid": "74b7b3fd-e967-5753-965a-b5a467d70e17"
}