Perceived workplace adversity and the psychological wellbeing of professional team sport athletes: Examining the impacts and implications

The workplace can present a range of challenges to employees across all industries, however professional athletes are an occupational group who face a range of unique stressors in their working environment that impact on wellbeing. This research examined how professional team sport athletes perceive adversity in their workplace, how they cope with this adversity and how working in professional sport impacts on their wellbeing. Findings demonstrated that professional athletes perceive signifcantly more adversity in their workplace than non-athletes and manage this adversity with a range of adaptive and maladpative coping responses. Impacts on wellbeing are discussed as well as the implications of this research in terms of the development of wellbeing interventions for athletes.