Social support influences on recovery from sport injury.

Abstract

Although social support has been recognized as an important coping resource in the psychological adjustment to injury and illness, the possible benefits of social support in recovery from sport injury have received minimal attention. The present study, therefore, set out to investigate the role of social support in recovery from sport injury. In open-ended interview sessions, 12 current and former members of the Canadian Alpine Ski Team, who had sustained serious injuries, discussed their perceptions of the social support received during recovery and its effect on coping with injury. Inductive analyses of interview transcripts revealed that the experience of sport injury was a process which spanned three phases: the occurrence of injury, treatment and rehabilitation, and the return to sport. The presence of social support during each of the stages contributed to enhanced coping manifested through increased motivation, better treatment adherence and a more positive outlook toward the injury and recovery. Support needs included emotional support, information support and tangible support and were met by various members of the athletes' social support network. Identified as important sources of social support were: family and friends, medical personnel, current and former ski team members, coaches, and the team management. In addition to highlighting the breadth of the impact of social support and the number of potential support providers, the present findings suggest that increasing social support during recovery can be an effective psychosocial strategy in the treatment of sport injuries. The identification of support needs during specific periods in the sport injury process represents an important step in the development of such interventions. The current findings support the transactional view of social support and indicate the further investigation of this process can also be beneficial to the development of rehabilitation interventions.