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Myles Grace
Kines 474
3/20/2017
Brain Trust: Psychology of Injury/Sports-Related Concussion
The article I will be summarizing is social support, athletic identity, and mental
toughness as moderators of the life stress-injury relationship in collegiate football player.
Between 4 and 14 per 1000 collegiate athletes experiences injuries per year. Players are more
likely to get hurt in competition than in practices. The sports with the highest injury rates are
football for contact sports and soccer and volleyball for noncontact sports. Half of the injuries
that occurred during this study occurred in the lower extremities, like the ankles and knees of the
athletes. The purpose of this study was to determine the “direct effects of life stress, different
sources of social support, athletic identity, and mental toughness on athletic injury over the
course of a competitive season. Second, researchers wanted to examine the potential moderating
effects of social support, athletic identity, and mental toughness on the life stress–injury
relationship”.
Research has implied individual and environmental factors like age, previous injuries,
fitness level, type of sport, playing conditions, and equipment could all potentially lead to
injuries. Participants rated their life stress as having a positive or negative impact. Some data
showed that life stress could be a risk factor for athletic injury.
Studies with college football players suggest positive life events can have a disruptive effect and
increase athletes’ likelihood to injury. Examination of the positive rated items like (e.g., “major
change in responsibilities on team” or “receiving an athletic scholarship”) over time can become
more disruptive by elevating the athletes expatiations and thus increase athletes’ potential of
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sustaining an injury. Participants include 107 NCAA Division one football players from the
southwestern region of the United States, participated, with a mean age = 20.08). To begin the
upcoming season 46 athletes felt they were expected to be starters and 63 athletes were on full
scholarships. Researchers used five test to measure athlete life stress, athletic identity, social
support, athletic injury, and mental toughness. Life stress was measured by score on the 67-item
LESCA assesses positive and negative life stress. For each life event that a player had
experienced during the preceding 12 months, such as “Major change in level of academic
performance (doing better or worse),” the players would rate it on the perception of that event at
the time it occurred using an 8-point scale that ranged from extremely negative -4 to extremely
positive +4; life stress scores (i.e., negative and positive) were obtained by adding up the
absolute values of the perceived negative and positive events. Social support was measured on
