Life Stress and Athletic Injury: Examination of Positive versus Negative Events and Three Moderator Variables

Abstract

A modified version of the Life Experiences Survey (LES) was used to examine the relationship between positive and negative life change and subsequent athletic injury among 104 collegiate varsity football players drawn from two teams. The findings from Team One indicated that players who incurred a significant time-loss injury had experienced greater negative—but not positive—life changes in the previous twelve months than noninjured players. Further, injured players tended to have higher object loss scores than noninjured players. No between-group differences were found for Team Two. Trait anxiety, competitive trait anxiety, and locus of control were examined as possible moderator variables in the life change—injury relationship, and were found to have no significant effects. While partially supporting past research, the findings indicate that more work on the stress—injury relationship is needed before life change measures can contribute to the assessment of athletes' injury potential.

Index Terms:

• life stress
• athletic injury
• moderator variables
• trait anxiety
• competitive trait anxiety
• locus of control
• Life Experiences Survey (LES)
• Athletic Life Experiences Survey
• positive life change
• negative life change
• object loss