Jean M. Williams

Psychosocial antecedents of sport injury: Review and critique of the stress and injury model'

Abstract To counter the narrow scope and atheoretical nature of early research, Andersen and Williams (1988) developed a multi-component theoretical model of stress and injury. The model proposes that athletes with a history of many stressors, personality characteristics that exacerbate the stress response, and few coping resources will. when placed in a stressful situation, be more likely to appraise the situation as stressful and to exhibit greater physiological activation and attentional disruptions. The severity of the resulting stress response is the mechanism proposed to cause the injury risk. The model also proposes interventions for reducing injury risk. For the last decade. this stress-injury model has helped to provide the impetus and theoretical base for much of the psychosocial injury research. The present article examines research support for the different components of the model. The article concludes with suggestions for potential changes to the model and future research needs.

Athletic injury, psychosocial factors and perceptual changes during stress

In this study, we measured changes in state anxiety, visual perception and reaction time during stress among 196 collegiate athletes participating in 10 sports. The athletes also completed measures of life events and social support at the beginning of their seasons. Measures of life events stress, social support, perceptual changes and changes in reaction time during stress were used as predictors of the number of injuries. For the entire sample, the only significant predictor of injury was negative life events stress (R = 0.45, P < 0.001). Following the suggestions of Smith et al., simple correlations were performed for those with least social support (bottom 33%, n = 65). Among this group, those individuals with more negative life events and greater peripheral narrowing during stress incurred more injuries than those with the opposite profile. Our findings are in line with the model of Andersen and Williams, in that those individuals who were low in a variable that buffers stress responsivity (i.e. social support), their negative life events and peripheral narrowing under stress (large and medium effect sizes, respectively) were substantially related to their number of injuries.

Age and Sex Differences in Motor Performance of 3 through 6 Year Old Children

Abstract This study examined the relationship of age and sex to the performance of 3, 4, 5, and 6 year olds on seven motor performance test items. Although significant age and sex differences were found on most of the motor tests, it appears that age generally was related more to performance than was gender. Overall, change with age was fairly linear except perhaps for balancing and a general tapering in improvement in the 5 to 6 year old category. On the tests of throwing and balancing, gender was as important as age, or more so, in its relationship to performance. Boys were superior to girls at all ages on the throwing tests; girls were superior to boys at age 6 on the Balance test. Gender differences of a lesser magnitude were found on the Speed Run and Standing Long Jump tests with the performance of boys generally being superior to the performance of girls. Thus, it appears that gender differences in motor performance occur as early as the preschool years. Interestingly, except for the Balance test, ...

Effects of Life-Event Stress on Anxiety and Peripheral Narrowing

This study examined one of the mechanisms proposed to be behind the relationship between life stress and injury. Past researchers have identified a correlation between high life stress and athletic injury for contact and noncontact sports and for male and female athletes, but they did not investigate why athletes who experienced stress from life events were more prone to injury than those whose lives were low in stressful events. The authors tested the hypothesis that recreational athletes with high life-event stress would, when placed in a stressful, dual-task laboratory situation, experience greater narrowing of peripheral vision and state anxiety than recreational athletes with low life-event stress. ANOVA and regression results offered support for peripheral vision deficits as a potential mechanism in the life stress-injury relationship and very minimal support the effect of elevated state anxiety. The great variability in peripheral vision changes for the groups with high life stress suggests that, for certain subjects, some unmeasured variable may be buffering the adverse impact of high life-event stress. The authors recommend that future researchers examine potential moderating variables, such as coping resources, and assess the relative contributions of psychosocial variables, stress history variables, and mediating mechanisms in predicting actual injuries.

Relationship of Life Stress to Injury in Intercollegiate Volleyball

The present study examined whether male and female National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I intercollegiate volleyball players with high life stress would be at greater risk for the occurrence of injury. Life stress was measured with the Social and Athletic Readjustment Rating Scale (SARRS) and the Athletic Life Experiences Survey (ALES). Regardless of how the data were analyzed (injured v noninjured, high stress v low stress, severity of injury), no relationship was found between life stress and injury, indicating that previous findings for football players were not duplicated for intercollegiate volleyball players. Also, different levels of coping resources among volleyball players did not mediate the life stress to injury rate but did differentiate injured from noninjured players.

Differential Effects of Sex and Status on Evaluation of Coaching Ability

Abstract The present study tested whether sex bias favoring males exists in the evaluation of basketball coaching ability for male and female coaches varying in professional status (defined by won/loss records and coaching honors). Subjects were male (n = 80) and female (n = 80) high school basketball athletes. Subjects evaluated written coaching philosophy statements from a hypothetical male and female coach described as having either high or low professional status based upon won/loss record and coaching honors. The coaches were evaluated with semantic differential scales which assessed knowledge of coaching, ability to motivate, players desire to play for, and predicted future success. A forced preference procedure in which subjects had to select which of the two coaches they would prefer to play for was also employed. A sex of athlete by sex of coach interaction effect on the four unforced dependent variables indicated strong sex bias favoring males. Overall, male and female subjects rated the male c...

The effects of stressors and coping resources on anxiety and peripheral narrowing

Abstract The purpose of the study was to examine possible mechanisms which might help explain why individuals with high life stress and/or low coping resources are at greater risk for incurring athletic injuries. The effects of life events, daily hassles (DH), and coping resources (CR) on state anxiety and peripheral vision narrowing during a stress condition were examined. Subjects were 74 recreational athletes who completed the Life Events Survey, Daily Hassles Scale (DHS), Vulnerability to Stress Questionnaire (CR), and state portion of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Peripheral vision was measured alone during baseline and while simultaneously performing a Stroop Color-Word Test accompanied by distracting noise during the stress condition. State anxiety was assessed during baseline and the stress condition. Analyses of covariance revealed that high negative life events (NLE) (p = .01) were related to greater peripheral narrowing during the stress condition. High TLE (p = .01) and DH (p = .005) were...

Coping styles and self-reported measures of state anxiety and self-confidence

Abstract Four stress coping styles in intercollegiate golfers (N = 112) were differentiated based on low and high combinations of repressive defensiveness (scores on the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale) and competitive trait anxiety (scores on the Sport Competition Anxiety Test). The results indicated biased responding on the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2) occurs only for repressors (high Marlowe-Crowne, low competitive trait anxiety). Repressors reported higher self-confidence and similar state anxiety as that reported by truly low anxious subjects (low Marlowe-Crowne, low competitive trait anxiety). High social desirability responders who were considered defensive high-anxious (high Marlowe-Crowne, high competitive trait anxiety) did not deny disturbing pre-competition cognitions. When predicting tournament performance with the CSAI-2 subscales, over twice as much variance was accounted for with repressors (assumed to have distorted responses) deleted compared to when all golfer...

Psychosocial Influences on Central and Peripheral Vision and Reaction Time During Demanding Tasks

We examined perceptual deficits hypothesized in a model of stress and injury relationships. An ophthalmologic perimeter was used to measure peripheral and central vision during baseline and demanding task situations for 201 intercollegiate athletes from 10 sports. We conducted analyses of covariance with the stress measures as dependent variables and their appropriate baseline measures as covariates. Performance under demanding tasks deteriorated significantly on all the perceptual variables. Individuals with high negative life events scores experienced greater peripheral narrowing and slower central vision reaction time during stress than did those with life events scores that were low. Men with low social support had more failures to detect cues, and men with high negative life events, low social support, and low coping skills had the lowest perceptual sensitivity. Women with high negative life events and low coping skills had more failures to detect cues. We discuss the findings in terms of how stress responsivity may influence injury risk through changes in perception and attention.

Intensity and Interpretation of Competitive State Anxiety: Relationship to Performance and Repressive Coping

Abstract This study examined (a) the predictions of multidimensional anxiety theory, (b) the effect of interpreting anxiety responses as having a debilitative or facilitative effect on performance, and (c) the influence of a repressive coping style on the relationship of anxiety to performance in recreational and semi-professional bowlers (N = 158). Regression analyses indicated cognitive intensity had an inverted-U relationship to performance that explained 4.1% of the variance (p < .05). The somatic direction subscale had a positive linear relationship to performance that explained 3.0% of the variance (p < .05). Removing bowlers with a repressive coping style resulted in a stronger and different anxiety-performance relationship. Cognitive intensity kept an inverted-U relationship, but increased the performance variance explained to 12.6%. Somatic intensity became significant, but with a negative linear relationship that explained 6.1% of performance variance. The findings did not support multi-dimensional anxiety theory and offered only limited support for inclusion of directional interpretation scales.