Social Support Expectations of Injured Athletes

• Other Authors: Spannring, Jaylene (authoraut)
• Format: Others
• Language: English; English
• Published: Florida State University
• Subjects: Educational psychology
• Online Access: http://purl.flvc.org/fsu/fd/FSU_migr_etd-8030

Injury is a common factor that athletes must face. Social support seems to be a helpful mechanism for athletes to recover from injury and cope with the psychological factors that arise with it. This study was conducted to evaluate the type of social support perceived to be received and wanted based on the provider from which it was offered. One hundred and two male and female basketball, soccer, football, baseball, and softball players were surveyed who had missed at least two practices and one competition due to injury within the past two years. The PASS-Q, a measure of social support for athletes, was used to determine what type of support players perceived to receive from one of four different provider groups (coaches, family/friends, teammates, and trainers/physiotherapists) as well as what type of social support they would have liked. The aim of this study was to determine what type(s) of social support athletes perceived they received from each group of providers, whether they were satisfied with what they received, and if they were unsatisfied, what they thought was missing. Four MANOVAs were used to test the hypotheses: social support perceived, social support wanted, the difference between perceived support and wanted support, the ratio of perceived support and wanted support. A Chi-Square was performed to test the athletes' satisfaction with the support they perceived to receive. Findings suggest that athletes are satisfied with support from family/friends and trainers, but not as satisfied with coaches or teammates. Athletes seem to want all types of social support from all provider groups, although the perceived and wanted support of the athletes were different for each provider group. Therefore, the provider group and the type of social support, as well as the amount of each type of social support athletes want from each provider group should be considered in future research. It is possible that some providers do not realize how important social support is during the rehabilitation process. This research indicates that certain provider groups may be unaware of how the athletes they work with perceive the social support that they receive. === A Thesis submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. === Summer Semester, 2013. === June 12, 2013. === Includes bibliographical references. === Robert C. Eklund, Professor Directing Thesis; Gershon Tenenbaum, Committee Member; Jeannine Turner, Committee Member.