Exercise and team sports have been proven to provide clear mental health benefits according to numerous studies. For some athletes who reach an elite level, sports can also be an opportunity to gain an educational scholarship and degree, or help lift their families out of poverty. Yet, despite these benefits, elite collegiate athletes display higher risk for anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation than their peers. 

The prevalence of depression among collegiate student athletes is as high as 33% and one study found that one-third of student athletes reported significant pre-season anxiety symptoms that are correlated with increased risk for injury. In recent years, a number of high-profile student athletes have begun to speak openly about their mental health struggles, but many more continue to suffer silently, with suicide rates doubling among NCAA student athletes since 2002. 

Professors at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work are addressing these issues through a new course that aims to demonstrate how the integration of social work and sports can promote well-being, inclusivity, personal growth and foster positive change within individuals, communities and society. The Transforming Power of Social Work and Sports (SOWK 603), launching in spring 2025 semester, is open to all USC students, regardless of discipline, who are interested in positively impacting the mental health development of athletes from elementary school to professionals.  The course also recognizes the central, unifying role that sports play in the Trojan Family culture, and aligns with the university’s moonshot initiative for athletics which  emphasizes the welfare of student athletes.

“Sports can serve as a protective factor for at-risk populations,” said Stephen Hydon, practicum professor and director of social work in schools. “Whether you are a professional athlete or working out at your local park, you can connect the dots on physical health, mental health and socialization through the vehicle of sport. The danger is when that becomes overwhelming and the athlete breaks down and becomes depressed or suicidal or uses substances to maintain performance.” 

A collaboration between students and faculty

As awareness of the connection between physical and emotional health has grown in recent years, USC Social Work has seen an increased interest from students in how to integrate the disciplines of sports and social work to make greater impact. In response to this, the school established a faculty working group and developed curriculum for the new sports and social work course. Once it was developed, the group sought out thoughts and suggestions from several current or former elite-level athletes who were students or alumni of the school, all of whom came into the social work discipline with a goal of integrating mental and physical health within sports. 

Olympic hurdler Gianna Woodruff, MSW ’24, provided the perspective of an Olympic athlete and social worker. Born to a Panamanian mother and American father, she grew up in Los Angeles. She represented Panama at 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo and is competing again with the Panamanian national team at the 2024 Games in Paris. In between Olympic competitions, she completed her Master of Social Work (MSW) at USC while simultaneously continuing her professional track and field career. 

“Sports intersects everyone’s life in some way and what we stand for as social workers plays out in the sports world,” Woodruff said. “I believe this course will bring a lot more people to social work and help them see that social work is bigger than they think. It’s not just working with kids and families. It’s your individual mental health; it’s what you can do for your community; and it’s what you can do on a mass level for groups of people.”   

Charles Jr Chidi Ohaeri, DSW ’24, is a former collegiate football player who witnessed the impact of mental health on college athletes when a teammate took his own life after being cut from the team. Ohaeri’s capstone project for his Doctor of Social Work (DSW) degree was the creation of a suicide prevention program for high school athletes transitioning into collegiate athletics. Ohaeri comes from a family of social workers, counselors and elite athletes, so the integration of these disciplines made sense to him. 

“My doctorate in social work ultimately led me to being able to follow my true passion, working with athletes,” Ohaeri said. “I want to make sure that athletes are understood as human beings and prepared to be successful in life, both on and off the field. I’m honored to have had the opportunity provide my perspective on this new class.” 

The working group, led by Hydon, also included Practicum Professor Rafael Angulo and Assistant Teaching Professor Aimee Odette, and is part of a larger effort to expand the integration of social work and sports at USC. 

Bringing health and wellness back into sports

Current MSW student Ally Rosenblum knows the pressure and toll of collegiate athletics well. While a UCLA women’s basketball player, she sustained a catastrophic injury during practice in her junior year, breaking her back and requiring spinal fusion surgery and a year-long rehabilitation. For the first time since she was a young child, Rosenblum faced the question of who she was without basketball. Although she recovered and went on to play for the Israeli national women’s team and a professional team in Israel, Rosenblum says what drew her to pursue a career in social work was her desire to become the person she needed when she was injured. 

“Athletes are these strong, fit, tough people, but there’s also so much pressure and so many battles going on internally,” Rosenblum said. “A big problem for me when I was injured was that my whole identity was in the sport. I had to learn who I was and how to potentially live my life without basketball when it was everything that I had ever done. So now it is amazing being able to pour myself into the social work field and help other people with these same struggles.” 

She is completing an internship working with high school athletes as part of the Wellness and Prevention Center, a mental health intervention service in Orange County schools. 

“I’m integrating the things I learned from basketball and merging that into therapeutic techniques and problem-solving therapy,” Rosenblum said. 

One of Rosenblum’s former basketball coaches always told their players to “control your R” — their response to a situation. They were encouraged to recover rather than limit their options based on a reactive mindset. Rosenblum incorporates this principle into her work with young athletes, advising that they apply it to all aspects of their lives to broaden how they view themselves and their opportunities within and outside of the sports they play.

“My internship has allowed me to see the need to start this at a younger age and take a preventive approach,” Rosenblum said. “If I had these tools earlier on, I think I would have handled my injury much better.”

Woodruff agreed with broadening the idea of health for athletes to include their mental health, as well as looking at how nutrition and other physical factors can impact overall well-being. 

“In underserved communities like where I grew up in South Central LA, mental health is still a taboo topic,” Woodruff said. “Sports are a way to open the conversation by promoting a healthy lifestyle that includes mental and physical wellness and so much more.”

Applying a systemic lens to the impact of athletics

Unlike sports psychology, which focuses on helping athletes to unlearn specific thoughts and behaviors that hinder their individual performance, social work looks holistically at the impact of participating in sports across the lifespan. From helping elite athletes address the internal and external pressures of high-level competition to working with children on mental and behavioral health issues, incorporating sports and recreation into social work practice allows for a more comprehensive and empathetic approach to serving clients and communities. It also embraces a systems approach that looks at wider cultural and societal environments surrounding the individual and seeks to advocate for change at a policy level where needed. 

“In today’s fast-paced and interconnected world, the importance of sports, physical activity, recreation and play cannot be overstated,” Hydon said. “These elements not only contribute to our physical health but also have profound implications for our mental, emotional and social well-being. Sports, recreation and play also have the power to bridge gaps, foster inclusivity, and inspire change in individuals and communities across settings both nationally and internationally.”

The new course aims to demonstrate how incorporating sports and recreation into social work practice can equip social workers with valuable tools that address not only physical and mental well-being, but also social justice, youth development and community engagement. Rooted in a foundation of social work core principles and values, the course will explore how sports and recreation can bring people from diverse backgrounds together and create inclusive spaces, as well as sports as a platform for advocacy and social impact to drive positive change in society. 

“In social work, we view a person and their circumstances  from a multi-layered ecosystem perspective,” said Aimee Odette, assistant teaching professor and a co-developer of the new course. “That is, it is not just about the impact of sports on a micro level but how also does it affect the many other systems or layers as well? This is what we will be examining in this course across the lifespan.” 

Woodruff is hopeful that the new course will help social workers, and those in a variety of professions, to better understand how to integrate sports and behavioral wellness and believes that USC is the ideal home for this innovative curriculum. 

“USC is known for sports, with a long list of exceptional athletes,” Woodruff said. “So it makes sense for USC to pave the way for other universities to bring sports and social work together. I believe this is going to open a lot of doors for the future.”

For more information on SOWK 603, The Transforming Power of Social Work and Sports, please contact Steve Hydon at hydon@usc.edu.