Stress, Coping, and Injuries in Male and Female High School Basketball Players

Past research has identified a positive relationship between life-event stress and football injuries, but research in other sports has yielded more ambiguous results. It seems, then, that the relation of life stress and injury may be sport-specific and that different sports must be studied separately before such a relationship is assumed. The present investigation examined the relationships among life-event stress, coping skills, social support, and injuries of male and female high school basketball players. Contrary to the hypothesis, the number of days missed due to injury was not significantly related to life-event stress. As expected, the injury measure was negatively correlated with both the coping-skills and social-support variables, but these correlations did not reach statistical significance. Recommendations for research are discussed.