PAIN COPING STYLES OF ATHLETES

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that differences in pain coping styles exist in athletes across rank (top, bottom), gender, type of sport athlete (individual, team), and type of sport (traditional, nontraditional). Following written informed consent, the Sports Inventory for Pain (SIP; Meyers et al., 1992) was completed by 480 athletes (mean age = 23.1 ± 8.7 yrs) involved in football, swimming/diving, volleyball, tennis, soccer, golf, track, basketball, downhill sking, rockclimbing, equestrian, skydiving, ballet, telemark, mountain biking, rodeo, and taekwondo. The SIP included 5 pain dimensions: direct coping (COP), cognitive (COG), avoidance (AVD), catastrophizing (CAT), body awareness (BOD), and a composite score, Total Coping Response (TCR = COP+COG-CAT). MANOVAs (Wilks' Lambda) indicated significant rank (F6,424 = 0.9217, P = 0.00001), gender (F6,473 = 0.8505, P = 0.00001), type of sport athlete (F6,473 = 0.7783, P = 0.00001), and type of sport (F6,473 = 0.7945, P = 0.00001) effects. ANOVAs (T-scores; mean = 50, SD = 10) revealed that top ranked athletes scored higher in COP (54.2 vs 48.8; P = 0.0004), BOD (54.9 vs 54.7; P = 0.00001), and TCR (54.0 vs 49.8; P = 0.00001), and lower in CAT (46.9 vs 50.6; P = 0.0001) and AVD (50.3 vs 54.2; P = 0.0109) than low ranked athletes. Males scored higher in COP (56.0 vs 45.0; P = 0.00001), COG (52.3 vs 49.1; P = 0.0108), BOD (58.0 vs 51.3; P = 0.00001), and and TCR (55.9 vs 48.9; P = 0.00001), and lower in CAT (43.3 vs 50.6; P = 0.00001) and AVD (50.2 vs 54.3; P = 0.0001) than females. Team sport athletes scored higher in COP (63.0 vs 50.6; P = 0.00001), COG (58.7 vs 49.1; P = 0.00001), BOD (58.1 vs 52.0; P = 0.00001), and TCR (63.0 vs 50.0; P = 0.00001), and lower in AVD (47.0 vs 54.0; P = 0.0009) than individual sport athletes. Traditional sport athletes scored higher in COP (59.6 vs 50.0; P = 0.00001), COG (58.7 vs 49.1; P = 0.00001), BOD (58.0 vs 53.9; P = 0.0003), and TCR (59.5 vs 49.8; P = 0.0001), and lower in AVD (50.2 vs 54.2; P = 0.01) than nontraditional sport athletes. In conclusion, significant differences in pain coping styles exist between rank, gender, type of sport athlete, and type of sport.