Knowledge and Attitudes of Concussion Reporting Behavior Intentions in Parents of Youth Recreational Football Players

ABSTRACT

Purpose: This study: (1) Described the knowledge, attitudes, and reported behavior intentions of young recreational football players’ parents toward concussion. (2) Investigated associations of the previous variables with parent demographics. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional design utilized an online platform to survey parents of children (8–14 yrs.) in three youth football leagues in the southern United States. Demographics collected included items such as sex or concussion history. Knowledge was assessed via true/false items, with higher scores (0–20) representing greater concussion understanding. 4-point Likert scales were used to describe parents attitudes (1 = not at all, 4 = very much), confidence in intended recognition/reporting (1 = not-confident, 4 = extremely confident), and agreement with intended reporting behaviors (1 = strong- disagreement, 4 = strong-agreement). Descriptive statistics were calculated for demographics. Mann–Whitney U test or Kruskal–Wallis Tests examined survey responses across demographics. Results: Respondents (n = 101) were primarily female (64.4%), white (81.2%), and participated in contact sport (83.2%). Parents averaged 15.9 ± 1.4 on concussion knowledge, with only 34.7% (n = 35) of parents scoring > 17/20. Statements that received the lowest average agreement (3.29/4) regarding reporting intent were related to emotional symptoms. Some parents (n = 42, 41.6%) reported low confidence in recognizing symptoms of a concussion in their child. Parent demographics did not have clinically significant associations with survey responses, with 6/7 demographic variables resulting in no statistical significance (p > .05). Conclusions: Although one-third of parents attained high knowledge scores, several reported low confidence in recognizing concussion symptoms in their children. Parents scored lower in agreement with removing their child from play when concussion symptoms were subjective. Youth sports organizations providing concussion education to parents should consider these results when revising their materials.

KEYWORDS:

• Reporting-behavior intention
• sports medicine
• traumatic brain injury
• youth sport

Acknowledgments

We want to acknowledge the youth football league directors who facilitated the dissemination of our survey and the parents of youth football athletes who chose to participate in our study. No potential competing interest was reported by the authors.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical approval

The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board at the University of South Carolina.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.