The psychological readiness of student-athletes to return to sport after injury

The purpose of this study was to determine whether athletes’ psychological readiness at the time of injury was significantly different from their psychological readiness at the time of release. An overview of the current literature on the psychology of injury, including psychological predictors of injury, psychological responses to injury, treatment of psychological problems resulting from injury, and psychological readiness to return to sport after injury, was presented. The Test of Injury Rehabilitation Effectiveness for Athletes (TIREA) was used to determine levels of psychological readiness. Thirty NCAA Division I female student-athletes participated in the study. Each participant became injured during the time frame of the study and was completely out of practice or competition for at least one day. Each participant completed two questionnaires. The first questionnaire was completed within 5 days of the injury, and the second within 5 days of return to practice/competition. A t-test for related measures revealed that the readiness scores at the time of release were significantly higher than the readiness scores at the time of injury. This suggests that the group was more psychologically ready upon return to sport than at the time of injury. However, in response to the question, “Do/did you have any reservations about returning to practice/competition?”, 7 athletes answered that they did have reservations, indicating that they were not psychologically ready to return to sport. In addition, 10 of the 30 participants’ psychological readiness scores at the time of release were lower than their scores at the time of injury. Inspection of TIREA subscales also suggested individual differences in confidence, avoidance and social support. Suggestions for future research to determine the important factors associated with the psychological readiness of athletes to return to sport after injury are offered.