Development of a Scale for Assessing Awareness in Injured Athletes

Previous research has suggested that deeper awareness of self and others shown by injured athletes promoted acceptance of their sports injury, which contributed to rehabilitation adherence. However, many of these studies have provided only limited information, because they have relied on case studies. Therefore, more objective data provided by psychological questionnaires are required for generalizing their results. Moreover, a scale for assessing acceptance of sports injuries and adherence to rehabilitation has been developed, and its reliability and validity has been demonstrated. However, a questionnaire assessing the awareness of injured athletes has not been available. This study was designed to develop a scale for assessing the awareness of injured athletes’ and it investigates its reliability and validity. Participants were university athletes (N = 343, 195 men and 148 women) who had sustained sports injuries preventing their participation in competitions for over a month, and could remember the circumstances of their injury in detail. They responded to questionnaires by recalling the middle period when they could not compete. Results of exploratory factor analysis using the main factor method and promax rotation indicated a two-factor structure: “Development of self-understanding (α=.765) and “Expanding and deepening subjective considerations (α=.760). Furthermore, the reliability of the entire questionnaire was sufficiently high (α=.838) and the high correlation of the scale with the Rehabilitation Adherence Scale indicated its validity. Moreover, confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated statistically significant results (GFI=.961, AGFI=.937, CFI=.962, RMSEA=.055). It is suggested that in the future, quantitative research on relationships between awareness and acceptance of sports injury, as well as adherence to rehabilitation should be conducted by using this questionnaire. It is hoped that the accumulation of such data will help deepen our understanding of injured athletes, as well as assist in developing methods for providing psychological support for such athletes.