COMPETITIVE ATHLETES - PREINJURY AND POSTINJURY MOOD STATE AND SELF-ESTEEM

In a prospective study, we determined whether preinjury and postinjury differences existed in the mood state and self-esteem of competitive athletes. The influence of severity of injury, gender, level of partic ipation in sports, and type of sport on these dependent variables was also measured. Among 238 male and 38 female athletes from hockey, bask etball, baseball, and volleyball teams, 36 sustained 43 injuries. Sign ificant postinjury increases were noted for depression (P<0.0001) and anger (P = 6.0012), whereas vigor (P<0.0001) was significantly less af ter injury. When the 36 injuries were classified, 27 were minor or mod erate (nonparticipation in sports for only one or two weekly assessmen ts), and 9 were severe (nonparticipation for three or more weekly asse ssments). When a stepwise multiple regression equation was used to pre dict the scores for postinjury depression, the only significant predic tor was the severity of injury (F = 8.48 [1, 34]; R2 = 0.30; P = 0.006 3). Of the following physical and psychosocial variables level of part icipation, type of sport, age, previous injury, preinjury stress, gend er, mood state scales, and self-esteem only level of participation (P< 0.0001) and type of sport (P = 0.0004) were predictors of injury. The significant preinjury and postinjury differences in mood state suggest that postinjury mood disturbances reported in previous studies are li kely attributable to the occurrence of injury, are related to the seve rity of injury, and do not merely reflect a disturbed