Poster Presentation

Paper ID : 2080-SSRC

¹Educated at: Department of physical education and sport science. Faculty of humanities. Research and Science branch. Islamic Azad University. Tehran. Iran

²Professor of Sport Psychology, Imam Hossein University, Tehran, Iran

Considering the importance and prevalence of knee injuries, as well as the confirmed role of psychosocial factors in the incidence and severity of sports injuries, investigating the relationship between these risk factors and severity of knee injuries, is remarkable. Also, some studies have confirmed the relationship between individual factors such as age and the athlete’s duration of sport activity with the severity of sports injuries. Therefore, the present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the relationship between the perceived social support, the amount of sports experience and age of young athletes with the severity of knee injuries. The participants in this study were 174 male and female young athletes (average age 26.3 years), with knee injuries and various sports majors, who were questioned in an accessible manner after the injury occurrence. All sample members were at least one day away from sports activity due to injury. In this retrospective study the perceived social support, was evaluated by Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support; and the demographic characteristics and the athlete’s number of years of sport activity in their main field were measured by a researcher-made questionnaire. The severity of sport injury was measured by a researcher-made sports injury questionnaire as well. The relationship between social support, age and the duration of sports experience with the severity of knee injuries in athletes was investigated through logistic regression modeling. The results showed that the total social support, the interaction effect of age and social support, and the duration of sport activity have a significant relationship with the severity of knee injuries. Based on this result, the role of social support in the severity of knee injuries was proven. The effect of age in interaction with social support on the severity of knee injuries was also confirmed, which shows that paying attention to the support provided to the athletes, considering their age group, can be an effective factor in reducing the severity of knee injuries. It seems that high years experience in major sport is also a factor that reduces the occurrence or severity of knee injuries among athletes.

sport injuries; Knee injuries; Perceived Social Support; Sports experience