title: Personality and injury risk among professional hockey players.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Although much is known about risk for athletic injury, research on the roles of individual differences in personality and temperament on athletic injury has lagged. We hypothesized that professional athletes with high sensation-seeking and extraversion scores, and with low effortful control scores, would experience more injuries over the course of a season, would have more severe injuries, and would miss more total days of play.
  
  
  METHODS
  Prospective design with questionnaire report at time one and injury tracking throughout an 18-week athletic season.
  
  
  METHODS
  Professional hockey team in the United States.
  
  
  METHODS
  Eighteen professional hockey players (ages 21-33).
  
  
  METHODS
  Players completed self-report personality (Sensation-Seeking Scale, Form V) and temperament (the Adult Temperament Questionnaire) measures. Quantity and severity of injury, as well as playing time missed, were tracked for 18 weeks.
  
  
  RESULTS
  On average, players experienced almost 6 injuries causing a loss of 10 playing days through the season. Those players scoring high on Boredom Susceptibility and Total Sensation-Seeking incurred more total injuries. Those scoring high on temperamental neutral perceptual sensitivity suffered more severe injuries.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Athletes who suffered more injuries reported a preference for stimulating environments and boredom with non-stimulating environments. Injury severity was not correlated with sensation-seeking but was related to temperamental perceptual sensitivity. Implications for identification of injury-prone athletes, pre-injury training, and post-injury treatment are discussed.
authors.affiliation: University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA. zachary.osborn@va.gov
authors.forename: Zachary H
authors.initials: ZH
authors.lastname: Osborn
authors.forename: Paul D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Blanton
authors.forename: David C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Schwebel
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001265:Athletic Injuries / Q000523:psychology*; D006688:Hockey / Q000293:injuries* / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012307:Risk Factors; D013694:Temperament; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult