The assignment is all about writing a Literature Review on the Topic: Re-Injury anxiety in athletes returning to sport: A comparison between team sports and individual sports with a minimum of 6 pages (1,500 words) by using the Harvard style of writing.
Details:
The below is the dissertation proposal.
Basically I am measuring and comparing re-injury anxiety in team and individual sports. I am providing participants with the re-injury anxiety inventory (Walker et al, 2010). This measures both reinjury anxiety in rehabilitation and when returning to training/competition. Then I providing a small amount of these participants with an interview to find more in-depth information about their reinjury anxiety and if any other types of anxiety are also occurring such as: Loss of athleticism, being perceived as weak, experiencing pain, loss of social support, letting down important others and impaired self-image (You may find something else to find out in my interviews).
I therefore require you to write my literature review of my dissertation. I imagine this to include past research which has occurred regarding emotion in sport as there are many models and stage theory which have previous explained this. Then literature looking at anxiety in sport and most specifically and importantly reinjury anxiety. Then looking into literature comparing reinjury anxiety in team and individual sports. Also a mention of how I am comparing both qualitative and quantitative research methods as very few (if any?) studies have done this when researching anxiety.
Review the Re-injury anxiety in athletes returning to sport - A comparison between team sports and individual sports by Michael Edwards.
Literature review:
1) When an athlete is injured, the primary focus is treating physical effects of the injury (Covassin et al, 2014).
2) Researchers have argued that holistic injury recovery requires addressing both physical and psychosocial aspects (Bauman, 2005).
3) Re-injury anxiety being one of these aspects can be defined as an excessive, irrational, and debilitating fear of an injury occurring after an initial injury of the same type and location (Reneman et al, 2003; Hägglund et al, 2005)
4) Interest between anxiety and sport was first linked by Andersen and Williams (1988). They devised a stressinjury model to help understand the relationship between psychological emotions and injuries. This has now become the foundations for all current research.
5) Most recently, Walker, Thatcher and Lavalle (2010) designed the re-injury anxiety inventory (RIAI) which measures: Re-injury anxieties regarding rehabilitation (RIA-R) and re-injury anxieties regarding return to training/competition (RIA-RE).
6) A wide range of past research has identified anxiety related to concerns about re-injury (Heil, 1993; Gould et al, 1997; Bianco et al,1999; Kvist et al, 2005; Walker, 2006; Houston et al, 2013)
7) Short et al, (2004) found that females reported greater re-injury anxiety than males in contact sports. This is supported by the work of Ollendick and King (1994).
8) Short and Reuter (2005) repeated this experiment for non-contact sports and found contradicting results showing that males had greater re-injury anxiety.
9) This suggests that re-injury anxiety occurs in different sporting environments and situations.
10) This is supported by Cassidy (2006) who found that athletes may experience different types of re-injury anxiety associated with: Loss of athleticism, being perceived as weak, experiencing pain, loss of social support, letting down important others and impaired self-image
11) Team sports and individual sports have been used as the independent variable when measuring other areas of anxiety such as pre-competition anxiety. Results revealed no significant difference. (Radzi, Yusof and Zakaria, 2013).
12) Radzi et al. (2013) collected data using various questionnaires in a 4-point Likert scale format. They then concluded that a more detailed investigation was needed.
13) This suggests combining both qualitative as well as quantitative research methods will be best suited to gain more detailed information from the athlete. Supported by Richardson and Latuda (1995).
Rationale:
1) Determining if there is a difference in re-injury anxiety suffered (if any) between team and individual sports will allow coaches to individualize their athletes rehabilitation programme (Johnson, 1997).
2) This information can be used to implement psychological skills training programmes to cater to the specific needs of the athlete (Dunn 1999).
3) Team sports and individual sports have yet to be used as the independent variable when measuring re-injury anxiety in athletes.
4) Majority of literature to date on re-injury anxiety is anecdotal (Heil, 1993; Bianco et al, 1999; Cassidy, 2006; Walker, 2006).
Aims:
1) Determine if re-injury anxiety is present in athletes from team and individual sports.
2) Determine if there is a difference in the type of re-injury anxiety athletes suffer between team and individual sports (Cassidy, 2006).
3) Explore the use of the RIAI to measure re-injury anxiety in a new area of study (Walker et al, 2010)
Hypothesis:
1) Re-Injury anxiety regarding rehabilitation will be greater in athletes from an individual sport compared to those from a team sport (Short et al, 2004; Short and Reuter, 2005).
2) Re-Injury anxiety regarding return to training/competition will be greater in team sports compared to individual sports (Short et al, 2004; Short and Reuter, 2005).
3) Interviews will reveal an underlying factor for why re-injury anxiety occurs and what type of re-injury anxiety is present. (Cassidy, 2006).
Participants:
1) 20 athletes (Ten athletes from a team sport, ten from an individual sport).
2) Participants must have an outstanding injury (from sports participation) lasting longer than 2 months (Long-term Injury)(Walker et al, 2010).
3) Regularly participating in their sport at club level or higher.
4) Undergoing a rehabilitation programme.
Procedure:
1) Each participant will be briefed and explained their rights to withdraw.
2) They will be all be issued with the re-injury anxiety inventory (Walker, Thatcher, Lavalle, 2010).
3) Following this, RIAI results will be analysed. Depending on the results, selected participants will be required to partake in a semi-structured interview lasting around 45 minutes.
4) Athletes will typically be selected who have unusual or intriguing results from the questionnaire.
5) A maximum of four athletes each group will be selected.
Research Design:
1) Mixed methods will be used as quantitative and qualitative research is being carried out (Richardson and Latuda, 1995; Radzi et al, 2013). Equipment
2) Re-Injury Anxiety Inventory
3) Recording device for interviews
Data analysis:
1) The Re-Injury Anxiety Inventory data will be analysed using pearson correlation on SPSS.
2) Interviews will be analysed using content analysis (Zhang and Wildemuth, 2009).
Limitations and Considerations:
1) Participants may be at different stages of their rehabilitation process while this study is conducted.
2) This is uncontrollable due to difficulties collecting participants who are all at the same stage of their rehabilitation process during data collection.
3) During the interview stage. There will be little to none previous meeting between the participant and interviewer.
4) This means no rapport will have been build up. This suggests participants may feel uncomfortable and unwilling to provide in-depth sensitive information.