On Monday 9 March 2026 at 10:00, Astrid Becker-Larsen defends her PhD dissertation entitled "Making Sense of Mental Health: An Ethnographic Study of Mental Health in the Everyday Lives of Young Elite Athletes". 

This PhD thesis examines mental health among four young female elite athletes and provides insight into how mental health is experienced and managed in everyday life across sports, school, and private life. The study is based on fieldwork and interviews and contributes new knowledge at a time when young people's mental health in elite sports is receiving a lot of attention. The results point to the importance of understanding mental health challenges (such as experiences of pressure, insecurity, and stress) in young athletes' everyday lives less as a matter of individual characteristics or deficits. Instead, these challenges appear to be more of a temporal and relational phenomenon that arises in the interaction between athletes and their immediate contexts in sport, school, and family life. In contrast to much existing research that focuses on measurement and individual risk, the dissertation closely follows athletes in their everyday lives and shows that mental health is a dynamic, relational, and context-dependent phenomenon that can only be understood through close attention to the everyday lives of young athletes. These findings challenge prevailing understandings of mental health as a stable, individual trait or as something that can be measured in isolation. The results also suggest that mental health work in elite sports should be approached in a holistic manner and anchored in the athletes' overall everyday lives. This knowledge is relevant not only for athletes, but also for coaches, schools, and sports organizations seeking to create elite sport environments that support both well-being and performance. 

The summary is written by the PhD student.

The defence is public and takes place in Jeppe Vontillius Auditorium, 1252-310, Aarhus University. Please see the press release for more information. 

Contact

PhD student Astrid Becker-Larsen
Mail: abl@ph.au.dk
Phone: +45 61673308

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