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Athletes' inclination to play through pain: a coping perspective
Thomas Deroche1, Tim Woodman, Yannick Stephan
1Univ Paris-Sud , U.R. CIAMS, Orsay, France. thomas.deroche@u-psud.fr
Anxiety, Stress, and Coping
|February 18, 2011
Summary
Athletes may play through pain due to social pressure. Ignoring pain can help athletes maintain physical involvement despite pain intensity, while catastrophizing reduces it.
Area of Science:
- Sports Medicine
- Psychology of Sport
Background:
- Social networks pressure athletes to accept pain as normal.
- Athletes face pressure to compete despite pain.
- Limited research exists on pain coping strategies in athletes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine the relationship between pain coping strategies and playing through pain in athletes.
- To investigate the role of distraction, praying, reinterpretation, ignoring pain, and pain catastrophizing.
- To understand how coping strategies influence athletes' inclination to compete while in pain.
Main Methods:
- Study involved 205 combat athletes.
- Assessed various pain coping strategies.
- Examined the link between coping strategies and playing through pain.
Main Results:
- Pain catastrophizing was linked to reduced physical involvement in sports.
- Ignoring pain moderated the effect of pain intensity on playing through pain.
- Ignoring pain helped athletes maintain physical involvement despite higher pain.
Conclusions:
- Pain coping strategies significantly predict behavior in real sport situations.
- Identifying effective coping strategies can help manage pain in athletes.
- Findings contribute to tailored pain management programs for athletes.
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