Athletes’ Expectations About Sport-Injury Rehabilitation: A Cross-Cultural Study

Context: Athletes enter injury rehabilitation with certain expectations about the recovery process, outcomes, and the professional providing treatment. Their expectations influence the effectiveness of the assistance received and affect the overall rehabilitation process. Expectations may vary depending on numerous factors such as sport experience, gender, sport-type and cultural background. Unfortunately, limited information is available on athletes’ expectations about sport injury rehabilitation. Objective: To examine possible differences in athletes’ expectations about sport injury rehabilitation based on their country of residence and type of sport (physical contact versus non-physical contact). Design: A cross-sectional design. Setting: Recreational, collegiate, and professional athletes from the United States (US), United Kingdom (UK) and Finland were surveyed. Participants: Of the 1209 athletes ranging from 12 to 80 years of age (Mage = 23.46 ± 7.91), of which 529 US [80%], 253 UK [86%], and 199 Finnish [82%] provided details of their geographical location, were included in the final analyses. Main Outcome Measures: The Expectations about Athletic Training (EAAT) questionnaire was used to determine athletes’ expectations about personal commitment, facilitative conditions, and the expertise of the sports medicine professional (Clement et al., 2012). Results: 3x2 MANCOVA revealed significant main effects for country (p = .0001, ηp2 = .055) and sport type (p = .0001, ηp2 = .023). Specifically, US athletes were found to have higher expectations of personal commitment and facilitative conditions than their UK and Finnish counterparts. Athletes participating in physical contact sports had higher expectations of facilitative conditions and the expertise of the sports medicine professional (SMP) as compared to athletes participating in non-physical contact sports. Conclusions: SMPs, especially those in the US, should consider the sport and environment when providing services. In addition, SMPs need to highlight and demonstrate their expertise durin

Athletes’ expectations about sport injury rehabilitation: A cross-cultural study

Context: Athletes enter injury rehabilitation with certain expectations about the recovery process, outcomes, and the professional providing treatment. Their expectations influence the effectiveness of the assistance received and affect the overall rehabilitation process. Expectations may vary depending on numerous factors such as sport experience, gender, sport-type and cultural background. Unfortunately, limited information is available on athletes’ expectations about sport injury rehabilitation. Objective: To examine possible differences in athletes’ expectations about sport injury rehabilitation based on their country of residence and type of sport (physical contact versus non-physical contact). Design: A cross-sectional design. Setting: Recreational, collegiate, and professional athletes from the United States (US), United Kingdom (UK) and Finland were surveyed. Participants: Of the 1209 athletes ranging from 12 to 80 years of age (Mage = 23.46 ± 7.91), of which 529 US [80%], 253 UK [86%], and 199 Finnish [82%] provided details of their geographical location, were included in the final analyses. Main Outcome Measures: The Expectations about Athletic Training (EAAT) questionnaire was used to determine athletes’ expectations about personal commitment, facilitative conditions, and the expertise of the sports medicine professional (Clement et al., 2012). Results: 3x2 MANCOVA revealed significant main effects for country (p = .0001, ηp2 = .055) and sport type (p = .0001, ηp2 = .023). Specifically, US athletes were found to have higher expectations of personal commitment and facilitative conditions than their UK and Finnish counterparts. Athletes participating in physical contact sports had higher expectations of facilitative conditions and the expertise of the sports medicine professional (SMP) as compared to athletes participating in non-physical contact sports. Conclusions: SMPs, especially those in the US, should consider the sport and environment when providing services. In addition, SMPs need to highlight and demonstrate their expertise durin

Athletes’ Use of Mental Skills During Sport Injury Rehabilitation

Context: Existing theoretical frameworks and empirical research support the applicability and usefulness of integrating mental skills throughout sport injury rehabilitation. Objective: To determine what, if any, mental skills athletes use during injury rehabilitation, and by who these skills were taught. Cross-cultural differences were also examined. Design: Cross-sectional design. Setting: College athletes from 5 universities in the United States and a mixture of collegiate, professional, and recreational club athletes from the United Kingdom and Finland were recruited for this study. Participants: A total of 1283 athletes from the United States, United Kingdom, and Finland, who participated in diverse sports at varying competitive levels took part in this study. Main Outcome Measures: As part of a larger study on athletes’ expectations of injury rehabilitation, participants were asked a series of open-ended and closed-ended questions concerning their use of mental skills during injury rehabilitation. Results: Over half (64.0%) of the sample reported previous experience with athletic training, while 27.0% indicated that they used mental skills during injury rehabilitation. The top 3 mental skills reported were goal setting, positive self-talk/positive thoughts, and imagery. Of those athletes that used mental skills, 71.6% indicated that they felt mental skills helped them to rehabilitate faster. A greater proportion of athletes from the United States (33.4%) reported that they used mental skills during rehabilitation compared with athletes from the United Kingdom (23.4%) and Finland (20.3%). A small portion (27.6%) of the participants indicated that their sports medicine professional had taught them how to use mental skills; only 3% were taught mental skills by a sport psychologist. Conclusions: The low number of athletes who reported using mental skills during rehabilitation is discouraging, but not surprising given research findings that mental skills are underutilized by injured athletes in the 3 countries examined. More effort should be focused on educating and training athletes, coaches, and sports medicine professionals on the effectiveness of mental training in the injury rehabilitation context