Injury Rehabilitation: A Goal-Setting Intervention Study

Abstract

The study examined the effects of a 5-week goal-setting intervention on athletes' rehabilitation adherence, self-efficacy, treatment efficacy, and the psychological response variables: dispirited and reorganization. Participants were matched across six variables and randomly assigned to one of three groups: goal-setting intervention, social support control, and control. The results confirmed some of the hypothesized effects of the goal-setting intervention: (a) athlete self-report of adherence showed the goal-setting group adhered significantly more to the rehabilitation program than the other two groups; (b) the goal-setting intervention resulted in significant group differences for self-efficacy (the goal-setting group having the highest level of self-efficacy); and (c) there was a significant increase across time for reorganization and decrease across time for dispirited (between specific time phases).

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“…Nevertheless, these findings need to be replicated using a larger sample size before definitive conclusions can be drawn. These findings are in line with those of Evans and Hardy [16] who investigated the use of goal setting as a form of psychological-based intervention for injured athletes. Whereas Evans and Hardy [16] only reported significant effects for time with respect to psychological responses to sport injury, this pilot study demonstrated medium-to-large, albeit non-significant interaction effects for a number of these responses in favour of the experimental group.…”

“…These findings are in line with those of Evans and Hardy [16] who investigated the use of goal setting as a form of psychological-based intervention for injured athletes. Whereas Evans and Hardy [16] only reported significant effects for time with respect to psychological responses to sport injury, this pilot study demonstrated medium-to-large, albeit non-significant interaction effects for a number of these responses in favour of the experimental group. Our findings are also congruent with previous research, which has indicated the beneficial effects of HRV BFB training on stress, anxiety, negative effect, and mood disturbances in sport and clinical settings alike [25,27,28,40].…”

“…Due to the psychological challenges of injury underscored above, researchers have explored the implementation of psychological-based interventions to assist individuals in their rehabilitation such as goal setting [16], relaxation [17], stress inoculation training [18], modeling [19], and imagery [20]. All of these psychological-based skills have been shown to be associated with improved psychological responses and/or pain management among injured athletes.…”

Using a Multidimensional Approach to Predict Motivation and Adherence to Rehabilitation in Older Adults

“…Flint 35 reported that 10 athletes recovering from anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction who observed peers involved in rehabilitation from the same injury and surgery had increased self-efficacy, self-confidence, and adherence to rehabilitation. Evans and Hardy 36 reported that a goal setting group had higher levels of selfefficacy and they also had the higher mean adherence score, although not significantly different from the control group. Studies have shown that a specific belief that goal setting will assist recovery has been shown to positively influence home and clinic-based adherence in several studies.…”

Rehabilitation from sports injuries: from theory to practice

“…Goal setting has been used in sport settings to enhance performance, perceptions of success, and self-efficacy (39,40,41), and also as been recommended for use within injury rehabilitation (42,15,43). Realistically achievable goals create positive expectations and beliefs about goal attainment, thereby enhancing motivation and adherence to the rehabilitation programme (27).…”