Mindfulness and Psychological Distress in College Student-Athletes: The Mediating Roles of Cognitive Reappraisal and Subjective Vitality

Introduction: College student-athletes must often balance academic responsibilities with intensive training and competition, placing them under considerable pressure and potentially increasing their risk of mental health difficulties. Against this background, the present study focused on the link between mindfulness and psychological distress and examined whether cognitive reappraisal and subjective vitality were statistically involved in this association as indirect associations. Methods: Participants were 430 college student-athletes recruited from five universities in Hunan Province, China. Using a cross-sectional survey design, the hypothesized model was tested using structural equation modeling in AMOS 23.0, and indirect associations were examined with bootstrap analysis based on 5000 resamples. Results: Mindfulness was positively associated with both cognitive reappraisal and subjective vitality. Cognitive reappraisal was positively associated with subjective vitality but negatively associated with psychological distress. Subjective vitality also showed a negative association with distress. Moreover, mindfulness showed an indirect association with lower distress through cognitive reappraisal and subjective vitality. Discussion: The findings may contribute to a better understanding of the psychological correlates associated with mental health in college student-athletes. They also suggest that mindfulness-related psychological resources may be associated with lower distress and may help guide future longitudinal and intervention research in this group.