Differences in Perceptions of Seriousness and Disrupting Effects of Athletic Injury as Viewed by Athletes and Their Trainer

Abstract

Discrepancies between athletes' ratings of the seriousness and disruptive impart of an athletic injury and ratings by one experienced Sports Medicine Trainer were examined for 30 male and 13 female athletes undergoing treatment at a Sports Medicine Clinic. Overestimation of the seriousness or disruptive impart of the injury was significantly correlated with reports of more pain, higher state anxiety, and greater feelings of anger, apathy, loneliness, and inadequacy, and was more common among athletes competing at lower levels. These findings indicate need for psychological support for those athletes who overreact to injury.