The Relationship between an Injury, the Psychological Aspect of Recovery and the Time it Takes Athletes to Return to Competition

Student: Lindsay Fox

There is sufficient amount of research that shows that stress and the time it take to recover from an injury are directly related. The study that will be discussed will take a look at not only how stress affects an injury, but also other psychological aspects that can are also related to the recovery of an injury. An injury is defined as anything that requires an athlete to miss at least one day of practice or at least one game. The purpose of this experiment is to test the relationship between athlete’s injuries, the psychological aspect of the recovery and the time it takes to recover from that injury.

Fifteen participants ages 18-24 will be recruited from Division III collegiate athletes that had an injury occur during their season and had to rehabilitate for it. Each participant will be given a survey to fill out assessing their confidence in their play before the injury took place and after the injury had recovered. The survey will have general questions related to their individual stress levels in their daily activities, their confidence with their injury on the field or court and also whether they are type of personality they are (type A, B or C). In addition, each participant’s length of recovery will be kept to track the amount of time it took for them to recuperate. The expected results show that the participant’s stress levels affect how long it takes for them to recover and also that once they recover it took them longer for them to feel confident in rehabilitated injury.