I do.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has recently highlighted mental health concerns in student athletes, though the incidence of suicide among NCAA athletes is unclear. The purpose of this study was to determine the rate of suicide ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Mind, Body and Sport: Suicidal tendencies An excerpt from the Sport Science Institute’s guide to understanding and supporting student-athlete mental wellness
www.ncaa.org
A Gallup study of college graduates found that former athletes were more likely to be thriving in life after graduation, largely due to the support systems their sports team provided for them.
www.insidehighered.com
A landmark survey of college graduates contains two big findings: Female college athletes make great employees; and male college football and basketball players pay a physical price later in life.
www.wsj.com
No, "a lot of high profile athletes" have not committed suicide lately. A handful have, just as a handful always have. Just as they always have at a lower rate than those who don't have the benefits of college sports.
It is no wonder that so many kids are struggling given how many parents constantly bring home such negativity. You are seriously deterring your own kid from playing a sport in college because you're worried she might fail, not on the field but in life, because of it. Instead, you would prefer to deny her the opportunity that she might have to leverage soccer to open college opportunity for her; you'd prefer to send her to boozy dorms her freshman year with no built in friend group or an activity that is very likely to reduce the risk of rampant substance abuse when she gets there; you'd rather send her to college without the instant respect that college athletes tend to receive just being a college athlete.
Some day you will find that there will always be "too much pressure" on your child whether she plays sports, participates in debate, goes pre-med, goes into the workforce, or does anything. You'll even find there is likely to be "too much pressure" if your child doesn't do anything at all and feels left behind her peers who did play soccer or do other things, all because her daddy deterred her from doing things because everything has "too much pressure". By far the best way to reduce the "too much pressure" on your child is to be a positive and supportive parent, instead of one who constantly whines to them about how playing a child's sport is just too much for their kid and deters them from doing something they presumably enjoyed until their parent ruined it for them with their self-pity and helicopter parenting.
