Cognitive Appraisals, Stress, and Coping: Preinjury and Postinjury Factors Influencing Psychological Adjustment to Sport Injury

Objectives: To examine the relationships among preinjury and postinjury stress, coping, personality, mood state, and rehabilitation adherence. Design: Participants completed measures of preinjury life-event stress, social-support satisfaction, dispositional optimism, and mood state. Injured athletes completed postinjury measures of mood state, coping methods, and cognitive appraisals of stress and coping ability 1, 4, 7, 14, and 28 days postinjury. Their athletic trainer completed a measure of rehabilitation adherence on those days. Participants: 84 college football players including 19 injured athletes. Results: Negative-life-event stress predicted postinjury mood disturbance, which was positively related with appraisals. Appraisals were related to greater avoidance coping at day 7, greater active behavioral coping at days 14 and 28, and less active cognitive coping at day 28. Active behavioral coping was associated with greater mood disturbance, and active cognitive coping and avoidance coping were inversely related. Conclusions: Results support cognitive-appraisal models of sport injury and dynamic views of coping with injury.