Michel-Kröhler A. Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Robert-Enke-Stiftung : Examining the relationship between sport specific rumination and mental health of athletes. 03/2025-12/2026.
Some athletes may only experience rumination in certain sport-specific situations, which can lead to context-specific affective impairment. So far, only the general rumination tendency is considered, which makes it likely that those athletes who only tend to ruminate in a sport-specific context or only start to ruminate in relation to a specific event will be overlooked. This would be particularly fatal insofar as, on the one hand, a certain type of athlete would remain unconsidered in sports psychology practice. On the other hand, a possible mechanism for the development of mental health problems in athletes would be overseen if specific rumination were not taken into account in research. Accordingly, sport-specific rumination should be considered a risk factor independently of the general rumination characteristic. Therefore, the aim of this research project is to investigate the relationship between sport-specific rumination and mental health in (competitive) athletes.