Athletic Injuries
There are many psychosocial factors that contribute to the occurrence and severity of athletic injuries. Many studies have found that there is a relationship between the occurrence and severity of athletic injuries and stress. Stress affects everyone and it is because of this we need to be properly educated about it. It is the body's nonspecific response to any demand (Williams, 1996). Stress is composed of many factors and is often described as any feelings of nervousness or anxiety. It has been established that there is a direct positive relationship between stress and the severity and occurrence of athletic injuries (Hanson, McCullagh & Tonymon, 1992). The research provided in this paper examines what causes stress and what causes the stress levels to vary in an individual. The researchers are trying to identify the cause of stress and what moderates the stress levels in an individual. Many situations can produce a stressful response and researchers have attempted to determine why it will leave an athlete more vulnerable to injury. In addition, there are many pyschosocial variables that make athletes more susceptible to injury, and psychosocial events that occur after an athlete has experienced an injury.
Ford, I.W., Eklund, R.C., & Gordon, S. (2000). An examination of psychosocial variables moderating the relationship between life stress and injury time-loss among athletes of a high standard. Journal of Sports Sciences, 18(5), 301-312. Bramwell, S.T., Masuda, M., Wagner, N.M., & Holmes, T.H. (1975). Psychosocial factors in athletic injuries: Development and application of the social and athletic readjustment rating scale (SARRS). Journal of Human Stress, 1(2), 6-20. Hanson, S.J., McCullagh, P., & Tonymon, P. (1992). The relationships of personality characteristics, life stress, and coping resources to athletic injury. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 14, 262-272. Most of the studies used previously published inventories or developed or modified their own to assess the psychological variables and to collect information about an athletes past injuries. The method used to assess the athletes and their injuries was done effectively but some of the questions called for the need to remember certain feelings and events over a long period of time. There were inconsistencies in the measures of both Bramwell, Masuda, Wagner, & Holmes (1975), Kerr & Minden (1988) and Hanson, McCullagh, & Tonymon (1992). All three studies required the subjects to recall and interpret their levels of anxiety and stress over either a one or two-year period. Asking the subjects to use their memory is not a reliable technique because memory is not always valid. As a result of the poor measures that these studies used, the research of Bramwell et al., (1975), Kerr & Minden (1988) did not give enough specification to exactly what their studies were looking to find. The variables that they tested would make it extremely difficult to draw conclusive data to prove their hypotheses. It is possible to believe their research was not as clearly presented because their work was done before the stress-injury model (Anderson & Williams, 1988) was developed. Other studies that tested similar hypothesis but used the stress-injury model as a foundation for their work, were able to produce more concise results and conclusions because they were able to compare their results to the standard stress-injury model. Gretchen, K., & Minden, H. (1988). Psychological factors related to the occurrence of athletic injuries. Journal of Sports & Exercise Psychology, 10, 167-173.
Some common words found in the essay are:
Anderson Williams, McCullagh Tonymon, Questionnaire ATSPQ, Zaichkowsky Starkey, Eklund Gordon, Kerr Minden, Scale SARRS, Scale SRRS, Starkey Zaichkowsky, , athletic injuries, life stress, coping resources, life events, anderson williams 1988, stress-injury model, williams 1988, anderson williams, psychosocial factors, tonymon 1992, athletic injury, mccullagh tonymon 1992, hanson mccullagh tonymon, stress coping resources, stressful life events,
Approximate Word count = 3354
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page double spaced)
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