Emotional trauma in athletic injury and the relationship among coping skills, injury severity, and post traumatic stress

This study explored the possibility that emotional trauma symptoms occur in athletic injury and the extent to which coping skills and injury severity affect levels of posttraumatic distress. Previous research findings on emotional distress and athletic injury revealed that anxiety, stress, and depression in athletes were elevated following sport injuries. No past studies, however, tested for the presence of posttraumatic distress symptoms following athletic injuries. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to explore the experiences of posttraumatic stress and coping for injured, elite athletes. The research design included a quantitative survey and was grounded in a psychodynamic framework. The Trauma Symptom Inventory and the Brief COPE Inventory were administered to 35 injured athletes in the northeastern US to assess if trauma symptoms were present post-injury and any reported connection between coping strategies and trauma. A one-sample t-test analysis was conducted to test for reported levels of elevated traumatic symptoms. Two independent sample t-tests were conducted to compare the trauma levels of athletes with avoidant coping skills versus active coping skills as well as those with severe injuries versus moderate or mild injuries. Findings indicated that posttraumatic stress symptoms were present in a significant number of injured athletes, yet coping skills and injury severity were not related to the intensity of traumatic symptoms the athletes experienced. Results from this study will raise awareness of posttraumatic distress among athletes and treatment options available to applied sport psychologists. The implications for positive social change include increasing awareness of a previously neglected area in the research and treatment of athletic injury and improving the emotional and mental health care of injured athletes.