Psychological features of experiencing a sports injury in athletes.

Abstract

The article examines the concept of sports injury and provides a research overview devoted to this phenomenon.A sports injury is considered as special life event. Unlike domestic injuries, its probability is determined by the subject's voluntary choice of a sports career, and the normative moment of its realization. It has been established that it has a high intensity of experience, combines painful sensations and emotional stress, and the significance of the consequences. It was determined that a sports injury has different consequences for the subject: it can be both positive gains (post-traumatic personal growth) and negative consequences (post-traumatic stress disorder, termination of a sports career, new injuries). A total of 90 respondents made up the empirical base of the study, including: 60 athletes and 30 non-athletes. The article analyzes the results of using the standardized interview «My trauma». It was shown that sports injuries differ from everyday ones in content, dynamics and phenomenology as a whole and therefore can be studied as a special life event using special research tools. Biographical (number of events before the injury) and personal (locus of control) were identified as prerequisites for traumatization in athletes. Differences in the prerequisites and experiences of athletes with a sports injury and non-athletes with a household injury have been revealed. Athletes are twice as likely to indicate the presence of significant events before receiving an injury. A comparison of emotional and painful experiences accompanying trauma in athletes and non-athletes showed that their variability and nuances are much higher in the group of athletes. In general, athletes show a higher level of negative affect compared to people who do not play sports.