Attributions for rapid or slow recovery from sports injuries

Sport participants (n = 276) stated the most likely cause of rapid or slow recovery from injury and rated that causal factor along several dimensions. Examination of the open-ended responses suggested that four general types of attributions were utilized by the athletes: personal factors, injury-related factors, treatment-related factors, and situational factors. Analysis of dimensional ratings indicated: (a) causes of slow recovery were consistently perceived as less stable, controllable, global, and intentional than causes of rapid recovery; (b) causes of slow recovery were sometimes perceived as more internal than causes of rapid recovery; and (c) physical self-esteem interacted with gender to influence dimensional ratings of the attributions. These findings were discussed in relation to the motivational significance of causal interpretations during recovery and in relation to the model of stress and athletic injury presented by Andersen and Williams (1988).