Psychological readiness to return to sport following injury: a state-of-the-art review

ABSTRACT

Psychological readiness to return to sport (RTS) after injury is a critical and timely area of research that has received significant research attention of late. Although research on psychological readiness to RTS has burgeoned in recent years, there remains a lack of conceptual clarity on what psychological readiness is. As such, our aims in this review of the state of the art (consistent with the typology of Grant and Booth) are threefold. First, we articulate key conceptual issues and questions regarding the nature of psychological readiness and offer a preliminary nomothetic definition of the construct. Based on the definition, we advance several hypotheses for testing in future research. Second, we discuss research examining correlates of psychological readiness and, third, we look at empirical work focused on outcomes of psychological readiness. Our review draws upon literature spanning various disciplines and cultures/languages.

KEYWORDS:

• Psychology
• rehabilitation
• return to sport‌
• sport medicine
• synthesis

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the assistance of Alfred Mowdood, a research librarian at the University of Utah, who facilitated our literature search plan. We also thank Cameron Collict, a master’s student in the School of Kinesiology and Physical Activity Sciences at the University of Montreal, for his substantial efforts on the in- and end-text references and tables.

Disclaimer

CDR John J. Fraser is a military service member and this work was prepared as part of his official duties. Title 17, USC §105 provides that copyright protection under this title is not available for any work of the US Government. Title 17, USC §101 defines a US Government work as work prepared by a military service member or employee of the US Government as part of that person’s official duties. No external funding was provided for this work. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Navy, the Department of Defense, or the US Government.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.