Introducing the Scale of Psychological Readiness after a Serious Injury in Sports

The main focus of research on sports injuries is on physical factors, and when an athlete suffers a sports injury, this injury can also have psycho-social effects on that athlete. Recently, it has been found that physical and mental readiness to return to sports after an injury does not always coincide. This means that athletes may return to training and competition when they are physically fit but not mentally ready. Many athletes do not return to their pre-injury activity level, and even fewer return to competition and training. Also, it has been found that competitive athletes are less likely to return to pre-injury performance levels than recreational athletes. Considering these cases, in the present research, an attempt was made to develop and introduce a suitable scale to measure the level of psychological readiness of athletes for sports after a serious injury by examining the background and existing literature regarding psychological readiness after serious sports injuries. The research method was a survey, the data of which was collected by questionnaire. The participants included all the athletes in the field of bodybuilding in Mashhad city, using the method of ۱۰ times the number of items of the tool (۲۱ items), ۲۱۰ of these people were selected as a statistical sample. To collect data, a researcher-made questionnaire was used based on the research of Gómez-Piqueras et al. (۲۰۲۰) and Webster et al. (۲۰۰۸). The validity was confirmed through expert opinion and exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, and its reliability was confirmed using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. The results showed that there is a significant difference between the mean score of psychological readiness after a serious injury in sports and its components with the hypothetical mean. Also, there is a significant priority between the components of psychological readiness, so that the most important priority is related to "level of preparation after the injury" and "confidence in performance", "risk assessment" and "emotions" are the second to fourth priorities. So, it can be said that the higher the level of psychological readiness after a serious injury in athletes, the better their return to sports and achieving performance before the injury will happen with better success. Also, the tool introduced in this research can be used as a practical and appropriate tool by psychologists and sports science specialists.

کلیدواژه ها:

Psychological readiness after injury ، risk assessment ، fitness and bodybuilding