Abstract
Playing through pain and injury is a common and accepted behavior in the athletic realm. The purpose of this research was to apply Tittle’s control balance theory to explain why athletes engage in playing through pain and injury despite its risky nature. We hypothesized that playing through pain and injury is a form of submission described by Tittle and that it can be predicted by the concept of control deficit. To this end, we collected and used data from a sample of 410 professional soccer players from Guilan province, Iran, and tested several propositions derived from control balance theory. Hierarchical linear regression was used to analyze the data. The study findings demonstrate that players with more control deficits are more likely to play through pain and injury. This relationship is conditioned by self-control, opportunity, motivation, perceived benefits, and provocations. For example, the relationship between control deficit and playing through pain and injury is stronger for those with lower self-control. Our findings support the utility of control balance theory in explaining an act of submission (i.e., playing through pain and injury).
Highlights
We focused on control deficits among soccer players because Tittle’s [11] original statement of control balance theory suggests that control deficits predict repressive forms of deviance where the individuals attempt to restore some of their control deficits
Tittle’s [10,11] control balance theory, we argued that athletes’ deviant and risky behaviors are byproducts of their control deficits in sports and social settings
Injury-related behavioral tendencies among athletes have been viewed as part of sports culture [35,44], athletes who frequently play through pain and injury are more likely to experience the consequences of taking serious mental and physical risks [41]
Summary
A few athletes can meet physical performance standards in professional sports and obtain high athletic status. Some athletes attempt to improve their sports performance by relying on risky behaviors, such as playing through pain and injury [1]. Other athletes choose to play with injuries suppressing their negative emotions and feelings because they fear portrayal as weaklings who cannot compete at a professional level [2,3,4]. Other athletes play with pain and injury because they believe that these challenges are necessary evils on the road to success and acceptance by coaches and teammates [5,6]. Scholars have viewed risk-taking behavior as an inevitable part of the sports world that has different origins, such as social desirability, the sense of masculinity, sports identity confirmation, and over-conformity [5,7,8,9]
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