Causal Relationships between the Psychological Acceptance Process of Athletic Injury and Athletic Rehabilitation Behavior

Abstract

[Purpose] The purpose of this study was to examine the causal relationships between the psychological acceptance process of athletic injury and athletic-rehabilitation behavior. [Subjects] One hundred forty-four athletes who had injury experiences participated in this study, and 133 (mean age = 20.21 years, SD = 1.07; mean weeks without playing sports = 7.97 weeks, SD = 11.26) of them provided valid questionnaire responses which were subjected to analysis. [Methods] The subjects were asked to answer our originally designed questionnaire, the Psychosocial Recovery Factor Scale (PSRF-S), and two other pre-existing scales, the Athletic Injury Psychological Acceptance Scale and the Athletic-Rehabilitation Dedication Scale. [Results] The results of factor analysis indicate “emotional stability”, “social competence in the team”, “temporal perspective”, and “communication with the teammates” are factors of the PSRF-S. Lastly, the causal model in which psychosocial recovery factors are mediated by psychological acceptance of athletic injury, and influence on rehabilitation behaviors, was examined using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results of SEM indicate that the factors of emotional stability and temporal perspective are mediated by the psychological acceptance of the injury, which positively influences athletic-rehabilitation dedication. [Conclusion] The causal model was confirmed to be valid.

Correlations between Emotion Regulation Behaviors and Processes of Accepting Sports Injuries: From the Perspective of Enacted Social Support

“…Previous studies (McDonald & Hardy, 1990;Nakagomi & Uemukai, 1994;Tatsumi & Nakagomi, 1999) have indicated a positive correlation between AIPA and dedication to rehabilitation. Uemukai (1993), Tatsumi (2013), Tatsumi and Takenouchi (2014) quantitatively demonstrated this correlation. Moreo-ver, Tatsumi (2012) indicateda positive correlation between AIPA during rehabilitation and cognition of recovery of athletic movements, as well as the sense of self-development when returning to sports.…”

“…The degree of recovery of emotional stability and time perspective was measured using the Emotional Stability scale and Time Perspective scale, sub-scales of the Psycho-Social Recovery Factor Scale (PSRF-S) developed by Tatsumi and Takenouchi (2014). We adopted four items that showed higher factor loadings from each scale, in total eight items.…”

“…The reason why we regarded injured athletes that had to stop doing sports at least one week as participants is that an early study (Uemukai, 1993) that adopted this criterion confirmed grief and acceptance. Moreover, other previous studies conducted by Tatsumi (2013Tatsumi ( , 2014 as well as Tatsumi and Takenouchi (2014) used the same criterion. Therefore, this study also adopted it.…”

“…The series of studies cited above have demonstrated the effectiveness of psychological support aiming at AIPA. Tatsumi and Takenouchi (2014) previously examined Psycho-Social Recovery Factors (PSRF) facilitating AIPA. The results of analyses using structural equation modeling indicated that PSRF is related to "emotional stability" and especially the "time perspective" facilitated AIPA.…”

Relationship between Adaptation after Returning to Competition and Psycho-behavioral Attitudes during Injury Rehabilitation

“…The authors of a previous study demonstrated a positive relationship between athletic injury psychological acceptance (AIPA) and rehabilitation behaviors. They pointed out the effectiveness of psychological support aimed at acceptance of an injury 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ) . However, to get a clear view of appropriate goals and tasks to support injured athletes, it is essential to examine their adaptive state after returning to competition instead of targeting short-term intervention effects, such as psychological stress reduction and devotion to rehabilitation behaviors.…”