Developing a programme of peer and coach support for young people experiencing sports injuries
What is the context?
Sport participation is positive for physical and mental health. But compared with adults, young people face a heightened risk of injury due to their changing bodies, openness to risk-taking and physical overloading through early specialisation in competitive sport.
What we currently know mainly comes from research among elite, adult and male participants: injuries can create psychological, social and emotional challenges such as fear, loss of athletic identity and decreased motivation.
We understand far less about the psychological impacts of injury on young people, how these relate to sport and home environments, and whether they are risk factors for more significant mental health problems. What’s more, sports injury is rarely included in programme development addressing drop-out, even though rates of sport participation fall during adolescence and young people often give injury and illness as reasons for quitting.
Podium’s early scoping work with young people identified a demand for practical social, psychological and emotional support after injury. We heard that young people would welcome guidance from coaches, families and peers to cope with challenges such as anxiety, loss of self-identity and pressure to resume sport before full recovery. At the same time, our work with stakeholders in sport governance revealed a lack of guidance for coaches on dealing with injury-related psychological distress.
By addressing these gaps, we aim to support population health by mitigating risks of mental health problems after injury, and by promoting sustained participation in sport.
What are the programme objectives?
The work consists of a research study and associated programme development, co-designed with young people and stakeholders in sport and mental health. We aim to:
- Understand how being injured feels during an important developmental period; how these feelings are impacted by school, home, or club/team environments; and what psychological readiness and successful return to sport feel like.
- For young people, develop and share online mental health and wellbeing resources that incorporate young people’s stories of injury, and its impact, in their own words, along with expert advice.
- For coaches, develop learning tools that include youth narratives and expert sports psychology advice on the social, emotional and psychological challenges of injury.
What is our approach?
Co-creation
Podium and Common Room explored the concept of online peer resources with young people using a focus group and one-to-one interviews with 6 young people aged 16–23 who had experienced sports injuries leading to at least 28 days off sport. Sessions were co-facilitated by a young person with experience of sports injury.
Research study
This qualitative study will explore the impact of sports injuries among young people who play regular, competitive sport. Researchers will recruit a maximum variation sample of young people aged 11-20 who have experienced musculo-skeletal injury, sustained during sport, leading to at least 28 days off sport (estimated 40-50 participants). We will either exclude concussion or conduct a concussion sub-analysis.
Using semi-structured interviews, we will investigate how being injured feels and how these feelings are impacted by school, home, or club/team environments. We will also identify any themes linked to taking care of mental health, and psychological readiness and successful return to sport, that map onto theories of behaviour change.
Findings will be published in a peer-reviewed journal. During this phase researchers will identify and record personal testimonials for resource development.
Resource development
Young people typically turn to peers to help them make sense of new challenges, and this age group is comfortable seeking informal mental health support online. For coaches and other practitioners, stories gathered with rigorous, interview-based research and shared digitally can offer persuasive evidence for practice and policy impact.
Youth resources will therefore incorporate personal narratives shaped by behavioural theory, because evidence suggests these are an engaging way of sharing health information, while also providing comfort and modelling positive behaviour. We will pay attention to identifying common youth narratives and important variations, and check for resonance with the target audience. The final format will be decided in collaboration with end-users, but it will include audio or video recordings of young people describing their experiences, framed and linked with statements that target key behaviour change factors. Accompanying online written material will provide a richer description of typical experiences, and tips for coping.
Coach resources will be developed through co-design with stakeholders and end-users.
What do we expect to learn?
Co-creation
Young people told us they recognised the psychological challenges of injury. They said information from peers and also sports psychologists, physios and elite athletes would be welcome. Stories from similar injuries or sports would be helpful. Content would be trusted if was hosted or promoted by NGBs, mental health charities or professional athletes. Short social media videos linked to richer content was the recommended format.
Research study
Findings will support the development of resources and learning tools, by ensuring young people’s narratives reflect real, typical psychological responses to injury rather than sensational or unusual cases. They will provide insight into whether injuries appear to be risk factors for mental health problems and sport drop-out. We also hope to understand more about the concepts of psychological readiness and successful return to sport.
Resource development
We will develop an evaluation framework to measure the extent to which the resources are valued by young people; resonate with their experience; are easy to use and would be recommended to other young people, families and coaches. The findings and project reflections will be published in a report for sport, youth and mental health stakeholders.
How can you get involved?
Podium will shortly begin recruiting young people to take part in our qualitative study.
We will also be working with coaches and other stakeholders to design coaching resources.
We welcome feedback from young people and potential collaborators.