Development and preliminary validation of the Injury-Psychological Readiness to Return to Sport (I-PRRS) scale.
BACKGROUND
Only a few scales measure confidence within sport; however, these scales are insufficient to measure confidence after athletic injuries. Therefore, better measures are needed to determine the psychological readiness of injured athletes to return to sport participation.


OBJECTIVE
To develop a scale that measures the psychological readiness of injured athletes to return to sport participation and to provide preliminary evidence of reliability and validity for the scale.


METHODS
The Delphi method was used to develop the Injury-Psychological Readiness to Return to Sport scale (I-PRRS). Two 1-way analyses of variance with repeated measures and 6 Pearson product moment correlations were computed to help validate the scale.


METHODS
Athletic training clinics at 3 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) schools.


METHODS
Four certified athletic trainers (ATs) and professors of Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education-accredited athletic training programs and 3 NCAA Division III coaches made up a panel of experts that participated in the Delphi portion of the study to develop the I-PRRS. In the second part of the study, 22 injured athletes, who missed a minimum of 1 week of practice, from 3 NCAA schools in Divisions II and III were surveyed along with their respective ATs. The injured athletes and ATs participated in the validation of the I-PRRS.


METHODS
The injured athlete completed the Profile of Mood States (POMS) short form and the I-PRRS shortly after injury, before returning to the first practice, before returning to competition, and immediately after competition. The respective AT completed the I-PRRS before and after competition. The I-PRRS is a 6-item scale that measures the psychological readiness of injured athletes to return to sport, and the POMS short form is a 30-item scale that measures mood states. I added the negative moods of the POMS and subtracted the positive moods of the POMS to calculate a Total Mood Disturbance (TMD) score.


RESULTS
The I-PRRS scores were negatively correlated with the TMD scores of the POMS short form at all 4 time intervals, showing concurrent validity. The I-PRRS scores were lowest after injury, increased before practice, increased again before competition, and had no change after competition. The I-PRRS as completed by the athlete and respective AT was positively correlated both before and after practice, demonstrating external validity.


CONCLUSIONS
Preliminary evidence for reliability and validity of the I-PRRS was demonstrated. The I-PRRS can be a beneficial tool for ATs to assess an athlete's psychological readiness to return to sport participation after injury.
Glazer
Douglas D
DD
Endicott College, Department of Sport Science, Beverly, MA 01915, USA. dglazer@endicott.edu
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001265:Athletic Injuries / Q000523:psychology* / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003697:Delphi Technique; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015601:Injury Severity Score; D008297:Male; D011594:Psychometrics; D020127:Recovery of Function / Q000502:physiology*; D012307:Risk Factors; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013177:Sports / Q000523:psychology*; D013178:Sports Medicine / Q000592:standards; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D055815:Young Adult