Using creative nonfiction to explore Canadian university coaches’ experiences and challenges with mental health

Abstract

Given the complex, multifaceted, and contextual nature of coaches’ experiences with mental health issues, approaches that capture lived experience are needed to move beyond prevalence-based-accounts. This study adopted a narrative inquiry approach, using creative nonfiction to provide an in-depth, nuanced account of Canadian university coaches’ experiences and challenges with their own mental health. Eight head coaches, including five women and three men, participated in individual semi-structured interviews. We conducted a narrative thematic analysis using creative nonfiction, subsequently presenting the findings as three composite vignettes that depict fictional characters whose stories represent coaches’ experiences and challenges with mental health. The first vignette follows Derek, a men’s soccer coach, who discusses how an identity rooted in winning contributed to mental health challenges, and how redefining success supported his well-being and coaching sustainability. The second vignette portrays Serena, a women’s basketball coach, as she reflects on an enticing professional opportunity that would affect her work-life balance. The third vignette is from Claire, an experienced swim coach, who reflects on the emotional toll of working in an environment marked by ambiguity around coach-athlete interactions, and how this shapes her perceptions of job security. These vignettes can be shared with coaches and integrated into settings to portray common coaching experiences, reduce feelings of isolation, challenge stigma, and illustrate the complex realities of mental health in coaching. By capturing both moments of distress and moments of meaning, this research contributes to a more expansive and contextualized understanding of this topic in competitive sport. This study shares stories about Canadian university coaches’ mental health. Using fictionalized vignettes, it highlights challenges with pressures tied to winning, work-life balance, and job security. By presenting real-life experiences, these results can help reduce stigma, lessen isolation, and spark important conversations about well-being in competitive sport. Coaches experienced greater fulfillment when they focused on processes like athlete development, personal growth, and long-term program building. This helped to protect their mental health against performance pressures and supported sustainability in the profession.Coaches benefited from using compartmentalization to manage work-life balance, yet constant responsibility for athletes’ well-being blurred boundaries and placed a strain on coaches’ mental health.Despite coaches’ endorsement of athlete safeguarding initiatives, ambiguities in coach-athlete interactions created significant psychological strain over time. Coaches experienced greater fulfillment when they focused on processes like athlete development, personal growth, and long-term program building. This helped to protect their mental health against performance pressures and supported sustainability in the profession. Coaches benefited from using compartmentalization to manage work-life balance, yet constant responsibility for athletes’ well-being blurred boundaries and placed a strain on coaches’ mental health. Despite coaches’ endorsement of athlete safeguarding initiatives, ambiguities in coach-athlete interactions created significant psychological strain over time.