STRESS, COPING, AND INJURIES IN MALE AND FEMALE HIGH-SCHOOL BASKETBALL PLAYERS

Past research has identified a positive relationship between life-even t stress and football injuries, but research in other sports has yield ed more ambiguous results. It seems, then, that the relation of life s tress and injury may be sport-specific and that different sports must be studied separately before such a relationship is assumed. The prese nt investigation examined the relationships among life-event stress, c oping skills, social support, and injuries of male and female high sch ool basketball players. Contrary to the hypothesis, the number of days missed due to injury was not significantly related to life-event stre ss. As expected, the injury measure was negatively correlated with bot h the coping-skills and social-support variables, but these correlatio ns did not reach statistical significance. Recommendations for researc h are discussed.