Dispositional Mindfulness and Injury Time Loss in Soccer

Sílvia Solé,Philipp Röthlin,Angel Blanch

doi:10.3390/su13148104

Abstract

Soccer injuries have a low prevalence, albeit prompting detrimental effects for individuals and teams, particularly with prolonged convalescence periods. Age and injury severity appear as the most robust correlates with recovery duration. The role of dispositional mindfulness remains unknown, however, despite considerable evidence that highlights positive effects of mindfulness on injury rehabilitation. This study sought to examine whether dispositional mindfulness explained additional variability in injury time loss in an elite sample of soccer players (N = 207). A series of moderated regression analyses examined whether dispositional mindfulness interacted with either age or injury severity in explaining the length of recovery from an injury. The main findings suggest that dispositional mindfulness was unrelated with length of recovery. In contrast, age and injury severity related robustly with the length of lesion recovery, which was even longer for the older players with very severe injuries. The current findings constitute a novelty in the study of injuries in soccer and open new research lines to determine whether mindfulness interventions are likely to contribute to shorten objective rehabilitation length for a more sustainable approach to sports injury

Highlights

This study addressed one main question: Did individual differences in dispositional mindfulness explain the additional variance in the length of rehabilitation over and above the effects of age and injury severity? Both factors exert a remarkable impact on the length and quality of injury rehabilitation
This study aimed to investigate the association of dispositional mindfulness with the days off due to an injury with a group of competitive soccer players
It was examined whether dispositional mindfulness contributed to explain additional variance beyond age and injury severity in the length of recovery

Summary

Introduction

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Dispositional mindfulness reduces stress and improves healthy behaviours and emotional regulation [6] It is unknown whether dispositional mindfulness associates with the length of recovery from sport injuries. Potential mechanisms contributing to the rehabilitation of injuries include the reduction of heart rate variability and blood pressure [14] and to enhance the modulation of anxiety and boredom [6,15] It is unclear, whether dispositional mindfulness contributes to reduce the rehabilitation period when considering age and injury severity. Dispositional mindfulness may contribute to reduce anxiety and rumination, and to improve the ability to regulate negative emotions leading to lower inflammation and reduce recovery time from sport injuries [10]. We examined whether dispositional mindfulness moderated the association of age and injury severity with length of recovery

Participants and Measures

Procedure

Statistical Analyses

Results

Discussion

Mindfulness Mechanisms in Sports