Term of Award
Spring 2015
Degree Name
Master of Science in Kinesiology (M.S.)
Document Type and Release Option
Thesis (restricted to Georgia Southern)
Copyright Statement / License for Reuse
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Department
Department of Health and Kinesiology
Committee Chair
Jody Langdon
Committee Member 1
Erin Jordan
Committee Member 2
Brandonn Harris
Abstract
Between 5-19% of injured athletes report psychological distress levels similar to individuals receiving treatment for mental health problems as a result of their injury. Athletes who return to sport before they are psychologically ready can experience fear, anxiety, re-injury, injury to addition body part, depression and decreased performance. For the athletic trainer, this issue is important to recognize because of the potential adverse effects that can be experienced by the athlete. In response to this, Glazer developed the Injury-Psychological Readiness to Return to Play (I-PRRS) scale, which measures how psychologically ready an injured athlete is to return to sport participation; however the measure has never been measured for potential influence of time spent in the rehabilitation process. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine if length of playing time missed and history of previous injury have any influence on the psychological readiness to return to play. The participants in this study were male and female division I collegiate athlete’s ages 18-23 who have an athletic-related injury. In this study, the I-PRRS scale was used with athletes who were returning to competition from various amounts of time missed due to injury. A regression was used to analyze this to determine if amount of playing time lost, or history of previous injury has any influence on psychological readiness to return to play. The results of this study will help to inform athletic trainers of the potential influence of time frame in which psychological readiness needs to be addressed. Doing this could give athletic trainers more knowledge about the demands of returning an athlete to full competition.
Recommended Citation
AMA
