Date of Graduation

2012

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

Traumatic brain injury (TBI; also referenced as “concussion”) is recognized as a major public health issue in the United States with approximately 1.7 million individuals sustaining a TBI annually (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2012c). There is a greater propensity for concussions in athletic environments (Powell, 2001). Based on both reported and non-reported accounts, it is estimated that anywhere from 1.6 to 3.8 million sports-related (across all sports and recreational activities) concussions occur each year in the United States (Hayes, 2007). As a result, this dissertation, which entailed two studies, examined college student-athletes’ perceptions of others’ (i.e., coach, trainer, team) communicative facework when sustaining a sports-related TBI and investigated college student-athletes’ communicative response when managing uncertainty surrounding the possibility of sustaining a TBI due to their competitive athletic participation. In Study One (N= 36), participants answered a series of measures regarding their most recent concussion experience. Results indicated, in general, that face threats and facework from coaches, trainers, and teammates did not impact a student-athlete’s embarrassment or stress. In Study Two (N= 28), college-student athletes discussed their uncertainty experiences, via interview and focus group discussions, as it pertained to their heightened susceptibility to sustain a sports-related concussion. Results revealed that student-athletes do not experience uncertainty and instead block all thoughts related to injury, as it would negatively impact their athletic performance. Taken together, there is a distinct need to identify larger samples and conduct longitudinal studies to further examine communicative strategies and determine those strategies that are best when communicating with a student-athlete in the instance of a sports-related TBI. Moreover, this research underscores the importance of utilizing communication to educate college-student athletes on the danger of concussions, as they pride themselves on playing through injury (Martin, 2011).

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