METHODS: The participants consisted of 612 athletes (310 males, 302 females) aged 12-70 years (mean age = 25.33; SD = 8.99) who were competing in sport competitions at the time, either individually or in a team, or both, and who had formally registered in local, regional, or national sport federations in Malaysia. They completed the Athletic Religious Faith Scale (ARFS) and a self-perceived sport performance questionnaire.
RESULTS: The results showed that religious-psychological factors explain around 21% of the variance in self-perceived sport performance among religious athletes. Only three religious-psychological factors (i.e., religious coping, athletic identity, and religious dietary practices) contributed to the stimulation of self-perceived sport performance; in particular, religious coping was the most predictable factor, whereas the other factors (i.e., dependence on faith, flow, religious mental healing, and religious psychological effects) had no meaningful relationship with self-perceived sport performance.
CONCLUSIONS: This finding suggests that sport psychologists, coaches, and other professionals should consider the importance of religious faith and help religious athletes practice positive religious coping (e.g., religious social support or religious meditation) to enhance athletes' well-being and athletic performance.
METHODS: The cross-sectional, survey-based study was conducted from September 2020 to June 2021 after approval from the research ethics committee of Universiti Malaya, Malaysia, and comprised student-athletes of either gender aged 18 years or above at various universities across Pakistan and who played contact or collision sports for their universities. Data was collected using the Urdu version of the Rosenbaum Concussion Knowledge and Attitudes Survey-Student Version. Data was also gathered about the participants' self-reported exposure to formal concussion education, previous sport-related concussion history, and reporting behaviours, where applicable. Data was analysed using SPSS 23.
RESULTS: Of the 369 participants, 224(60.7%) were males and 145(39.3%) were females. The overall mean age was 19.95±1.75 years. Among the participants, 327(88.6%) had not received formal concussion education. The mean knowledge score was 12.76±2.73 out of a possible 25 points, and the mean attitude score was 38.63±10.30 out of 75 points. Knowledge had a weak positive correlation with attitude towards sport-related concussions SRC (p<0.05). Females displayed better attitudes towards sport-related concussions than their male counterparts (p<0.05). Overall, 126(34%) participants had experienced sport-related concussion symptoms following a blow to the head in the preceding 12 months, and 81(64.3%) of them had continued playing while being symptomatic.
CONCLUSION: Pakistani university student-athletes lacked adequate concussion knowledge and held poor attitudes towards sport-related concussions.
METHODS: This study employed a cross-cultural adaptation and psychometric testing design to translate and validate the Chinese version of the I-PRRS (I-PRRS-Ch). The translation process followed established guidelines, including forward and backward translation by bilingual experts, followed by an expert panel review to ensure content validity. A pilot study was conducted to assess face validity and identify any potential translation or cultural adaptation issues. The floor and ceiling effects, test-retest reliability, composite reliability, convergent validity, and concurrent validity were assessed to evaluate the translated questionnaire's reliability and validity. To evaluate the reliability of the I-PRRS-Ch, test-retest reliability was employed using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC 3,1). Composite reliability and convergent validity were assessed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The Chinese version of the Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia (SC-TSK) was used to measure the concurrent validity of the I-PRRS-Ch.
RESULTS: A total of 183 injured athletes (male: n = 148, female: n = 35; age: Mean = 20.04, SD = 3) from various sports, including track and field, football, basketball, martial arts, volleyball, and gymnastics, participated in this study. Preliminary analysis showed no floor or ceiling effects were detected for the I-PRRS-Ch. Test-retest reliability of the I-PRRS-Ch scale was excellent (ICC = 0.98). Internal consistency measures included a Cronbach's alpha value of 0.85 and a composite reliability of 0.89, indicating good reliability. Convergent validity was established with an average variance extracted of 0.57. Concurrent validity was supported by a moderate inverse correlation (r = -.42) between the I-PRRS-Ch scale and the SC-TSK, validating the psychological readiness measure concerning kinesiophobia.
CONCLUSIONS: The I-PRRS-Ch scale is a reliable and valid tool that provides a screening mechanism to identify psychological barriers in Chinese athletes before returning to sport.