Health behaviors and mental health outcomes in male and female athletes. (A) A significant latent variable (LV) from the PLS analysis separated by males and females indicated a significant relationship between energy, aggressive behaviors, and alcohol use and mental health symptoms for both males and females. (B) A second significant LV indicated a relationship between unhealthy dietary habits, nutrition attention, and alcohol health behaviors and psychological distress for females only. Left panels: Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) correlations. Error bars represent 95% confidence intervals. Right panels: Bootstrap ratios (BSR) for health behaviors; a BSR threshold of 2 corresponds to a p-value of p < .05, significance is represented by the solid line. Positive values indicate a positive correlation with psychological distress and stress scores; negative values indicate a negative correlation.