Coping, social support and injury: Changes over time and the effects of level of sports involvement

Objectives: To examine the coping strategies used after injury and the prov ision of and satisfaction with social support as functions of sport involve ment and stage of rehabilitation. Design/Patients: Complete data were available at 3 points (beginning, middl e, and end of formal rehabilitation) for 93 patients, all of whom had susta ined injury restricting normal functioning for at least 21 days. Results/Conclusions. Coping varied as a function of stage in rehabilitation , with patients deploying all strategies more at the beginning of rehabilit ation. There was little variation in coping and social support, although th ose more involved in sport adopted a support-seeking coping strategy to a g reater extent. Irrespective of sports-involvement status, women were more s atisfied with practical and emotional support. Those who were more involved in sport were judged by their physiotherapists to be better adherents. Ado ption of an emotional discharge coping strategy was negatively associated w ith adherence throughout rehabilitation.