Mental health and professional women footballers: a scoping review

Perry, C, Pereira Vargas, MLF, Bowes, A ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5635-106X, Culvin, A, Macbeth, JL and Spandler, H, 2026. Mental health and professional women footballers: a scoping review. Soccer and Society. ISSN 1466-0970

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Abstract

This scoping review aimed to synthesize literature on mental health and professional women footballers and provide recommendations for future research. Four databases were searched for studies meeting the inclusion criteria. After screening over 1,100 articles, 10 met the inclusion criteria. All studies used quantitative methods and self-report measures to examine mental ill-health symptoms, mainly depression, anxiety, and eating disorder symptoms. Most studies focused on depression (80%) and competition-related risk factors, such as playing position, competition level, injury status, and starting status. Few studies examined social, cultural, or contextual issues specific to elite women footballers, including contract instability, social media exposure, body image, motherhood, sexism, and discrimination. The exclusive use of quantitative methods has hindered our understanding of players’ lived experiences. As the game continues to grow and professionalize, research should incorporate qualitative approaches and more targeted questions to better capture the changing socio-cultural context surrounding professional women footballers.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Soccer and Society
Creators:	Perry, C., Pereira Vargas, M.L.F., Bowes, A., Culvin, A., Macbeth, J.L. and Spandler, H.
Publisher:	Informa UK Limited
Date:	4 April 2026
ISSN:	1466-0970
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1080/14660970.2026.2653926 DOI 2607417 Other
Rights:	This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Soccer and Society on 4 April 2026, available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/14660970.2026.2653926
Divisions:	Schools > School of Science and Technology
Record created by:	Laura Borcherds
Date Added:	15 Apr 2026 07:45
Last Modified:	15 Apr 2026 07:45
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/55556

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