Effectiveness of a stress management pilot program aimed at reducing the incidence of sports injuries in young football (soccer) players

Abstract

Esta es la versión de autor del artículo publicado en: This is an author produced version of a paper published in:Physical Therapy in Sport 24 (2017) Effectiveness of a stress management pilot program aimed at reducing the incidence of sports injuries in young football (soccer) players ABSTRACT Objectives: Several attempts to reduce the incidence of sport injuries using psychosocial interventions produced fruitful, although inconclusive results. This paper presents the effectiveness and implementation issues of a pilot 3-month stress-management and muscle relaxation program aimed at reducing sport injury incidence.Design: Pre-post treatment-non treatment group comparison.Program administration: The program was administered by a trained psychologist on a once-a-week, one-hour session basis.Participants: Seventy-four male soccer players from four National Youth league teams voluntarily participated. Teams were randomly assigned to either treatment/ non-treatment group.Measures: Injury protocol, Self-monitoring cards, Athletes' satisfaction and commitment survey, Coaches' interview.Results: Group main effect and Time-Group interaction effect were both statistically significant, F(1,60) = 8.30, p = .005,  2 p = .121, with the average number of injuries larger in the post-treatment phase of Non-treatment group (p = .005,  2 p = .077).There was a significant decrease in the average number of injuries for the RUNNING HEAD: A PILOT STRESS-MANAGEMENT PROGRAM TO REDUCE SPORT INJURIES 2 intervention group before and after implementing the program (p < .001,  2 p = .309).Conclusions: A controlled implementation of a psychosocial program was effective in reducing youth soccer sport injuries, with a high level of satisfaction and commitment from the athletes, as well as high acceptance from the coaches.

Healthy Practice of Female Soccer and Futsal: Identifying Sources of Stress, Anxiety and Depression

“…Although it is possible to say that the emotional functioning of the two groups of the present study is pretty similar, it is important to consider the different levels of anxiety between these two studies, with attention to the fact that this level correlates with their perception of the magnitude of the threat and worry with their situation. This point, as seen before, is very important regarding the prevention side of the psychological interventions with injured athletes [12,38]. Furthermore, although in the Ivarsson et al [9] meta-analysis, the role of the athletes' personality traits-which could include the trait anxiety-is found to have to a marginal association with the injury rates, the current research should not overlook the influence of a key aspect, such as this.…”

“…Historically, the research in this field has been focused on the medical, physiological, and biomechanical perspectives, but during the last two decades, the role of the psychological factors as a possible cause of the injuries has been also extensively explored [9], also suggesting interdisciplinary theoretical models and practical interventions [10]. The study of the psychological factors that may affect the athlete's vulnerability to the injury has become, nowadays, some kind of paradigm in the field of sports psychology [10][11][12].…”

Análisis de la relación entre apoyo social y lesiones en futbolistas federados

“…Por último, indicar que este tipo de avances en la investigación permitirá identificar factores que predisponen a una mayor vulnerabilidad a la lesión y, por ende, identificar a deportistas con alto riesgo de lesión con el fin de diseñar programas de prevención e intervención de lesiones deportivas (Almeida et al, 2014;Johnson et al, 2014;Olmedilla, 2005;Olmedilla, Rubio, Ortega y García-Mas, 2017).…”

Tendencia al riesgo y lesión deportiva en fútbol y fútbol sala femenino

“…El estudio de los factores psicológicos que inciden en la vulnerabilidad a la lesión o que inducen comportamientos inadecuados que redundan en lesión también tiene una importante tradición en el campo de la psicología del deporte (Johnson, Tranaeus, & Ivarsson, 2014;Olmedilla & García-Mas, 2009;Olmedilla, Rubio, Ortega, & García-Mas, 2017;Udry & Andersen, 2008). El modelo de estrés y lesión deportiva propuesto por Andersen & Williams (1988), ha ido consolidando un enfoque que establece que cuando los deportistas se enfrentan a situaciones deportivas potencialmente estresantes llevan a cabo una estimación de las demandas de la situación, de sus habilidades para afrontarla y de las consecuencias de ese afrontamiento, o de su evitación.…”