The effect of social support for injured athletes

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to develop the social support scale for injured athletes and to investigate between the social support and injured athlete's emotional states in recovering process. The first, to develop the questionnaires of Social Support Scale for Athletic Injuries, 298 college athletes (male 124, female 107, mean age 19.8) in Tokyo area answered the questionnaire. The results of exploratory factor analyses identified 2 or 3 factors from 5 types of social support scales (coach, team mates, doctor, family members and friends). Each of these factors showed appropriate Cronbach's α reliability coefficient. The second, One-way ANOVA were conducted Social Support Scale for Athletic Injuries by injured level. Significant main effects were found in “Physiological support from team mates”, “Psychological support from team mates”, “Physiological support from family members” and “Physiological support from friends”. The results of these analyses showed that athletes who suffer from chronic pain felt lower social support than athletes who recovered from injuries. The third, to investigate the association of Social Support Scale for Athletic Injuries and Emotional State Questionnaire, multiple regression analyses were conducted with each gender. The results showed that social support system for injured athletes decrease the negative emotional reactions.