Pedro Teques
Polytechnic Institute of Maia, Portugal
Pedro Teques is a lecturer in sport and exercise psychology at the Polytechnic Institute of Maia. He graduated in psychology with specialization in sport psychology. Then, he completed his MS and PhD in sport and exercise psychology at the Faculty of Human Kinetics, University of Lisbon. In 2009, he received the prize for the best students at the University of Lisbon, and one of his PhD studies received the prize in the Young Investigators competition at the annual congress of the Portuguese Society of Sport Psychology, in 2014. Pedro has authored and co-authored more than 30 peer-reviewed papers in the area of the psychosocial influences on sport performance. He is also a chartered psychologist by the Portuguese Psychologists Organization. For over a decade, he has consulted with coaches, parents, athletes and referees in a number of sports (e.g., football, handball, gymnastics, trap shooting). Currently he collaborates with the Referees’ Committee of the Portuguese Football Federation.
Mental health in elite football players
Pedro Teques
Polytechnic Institute of Maia, Portugal
There is a growing evidence for the prevalence of symptoms related to distress, anxiety, depression, or substance abuse in footballers (Gouttbarge et al., 2015), however little is known about the coping mechanisms that footballers used to deal with stressful situations. The purpose of this lecture is to identify the main symptoms related to the mental disorder of professional soccer players and the coping mechanisms used by these athletes. In fact, there is evidence of the impact of life events, career dissatisfaction, psychological distress, anxiety / depression, sleep disturbance, and inappropriate alcoholic and eating behaviors in the mental health of footballers, and also coping strategies to deal with stressful situations. The data indicate a 38.8% prevalence of 6 significant events in the last year, 21.8% distress, 13.9% dissatisfied with their career, 26.4% anxiety / depression, 32.4% sleep disturbance, 4.6% alcoholic behaviors, and 39.4% inappropriate eating behaviors. Footballers have shown to use mostly adaptive coping strategies (e.g., 40.7% active coping). In the end, will be discussed the practices of intervention to work with professional footballers.
