Stressful life events linked to injuries in football players, according to UNT study

Parents of teen-agers and young adults who play football may want to pay special attention to the levels of stress in the lives of their young athletes.

Researchers in the UNT Center for Sport Psychology and Performance Excellence say high school and college football players who are experiencing stressful events in their lives before the start of preseason practice and the first game are more likely to be injured during the season than their teammates. They also have a more difficult time coping with their injuries.

Trent Petrie, associate professor of psychology and center director, and Courtney Albinson, a doctoral student in counseling psychology, followed 84 college players and 50 high school varsity players through a football season to determine factors that predict injuries.

During preseason practice, the players completed questionnaires about stressful events in their lives, such as recent deaths of close friends or family members or marital problems between their parents. They also were asked about their satisfaction with support from family members, friends and coaches, their moods and their tendencies to be optimistic or pessimistic.

Petrie says stress increases muscle tension and decreases peripheral vision.

"A player under high levels of stress may not see a tackler out of the corner of his eye and not avoid him, and that may lead to injury," he says.

About 23 percent of the players in the study sustained acute injuries that required them to miss practice for at least one day. Stressful life events and low levels of social support proved to be very strong predictors of whether a player would be injured, the researchers discovered. Petrie, who has also studied how college gymnasts, soccer players and volleyball players cope with injuries, says previous studies of injured athletes had the same conclusion.

Petrie and Albinson asked the players about their injuries from the first day after being injured until they returned to practice or competition, noting that athletes tended to become depressed and more stressed after being injured.

Albinson says the players with more stress and lower levels of social support tended to cope with their injuries more negatively as time progressed than injured players with less stress and higher levels of social support.

"In the first four days after suffering their injuries, the athletes who perceived greater stress in their lives tended to be more active in coping. At that point, they likely did not have complete information about their injuries. Therefore, they were busy talking with physicians and athletic trainers, still feeling optimistic about the possibility of returning to practice soon," she says. "By day seven after the injury, these athletes were in the avoidance mode — keeping to themselves and perhaps drinking and eating more. They realized at that point that they'd have to miss the next game and weren't sure when they would return."

Petrie points out that a month after sustaining an injury, many athletes have accepted being on the sidelines and are focusing on recovery.

"The initial strong emotional reaction to the injury has passed," he says. "However, the more an athlete sees an injury negatively as an overwhelming event, the less likely he is to put forth effort in rehabilitation. He may even skip rehab sessions."

Athletes with very serious injuries requiring surgery often think positively about the injury before surgery, but negative feelings resurface as they prepare to return to the training field, Petrie says.

"Most trainers will tell you that their biggest challenge may not be to get an athlete who was injured back in top physical shape, but to get his or her confidence back. Hesitancy in practice or during a game may lead to reinjury," he says.

Petrie and Albinson say their research proves that sports psychologists need to provide athletes with healthy methods of coping with injuries, including relaxation training and talking about their feelings instead of avoiding them. This is particularly important for high school athletes, who have tended to be overlooked in sports psychology research, Albinson says.

The researchers have presented their study on college and high school football players at two conferences of the Advancement for Applied Sports Psychology. They plan to follow a larger group of players through a season and through rehabilitation from injuries in the future.

BY NANCY KOLSTI nkolsti@unt.edu

Other featured articles in this issue

• UNT opens research park facility
• Food and fun: Howdy Week welcomes students back to campus Aug. 25-31
• Exhibit of folk art, textiles marks SOVA 10th anniversary
• Talent Search funded for five more years
• Incoming UNT chancellor calls for ideas from faculty, staff to build UNT partnerships
• Faculty members honored at annual convocation ceremony
• National science grant puts students on fast track

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