Why does the psychological effects of injury need to be researched?

Injury is common within sport and is therefore a widely researched topic. My dissertation project is looking at the psychological effects of lower limb injury between genders and the effect this has on the rehabilitation process.

This needs to be researched as a lot of literature looks into the physical rehabilitation such as physiotherapy but don’t realise the psychological harm athletes experience after injury. Also, many studies have found that males and females have different processes to deal with stress and therefore may need different styles of rehabilitation post injury.

Athletes experience different emotions after injury but rehabilitation styles have always been the same, no matter what gender. However, little research has compared genders and whether they need different rehabilitation, for example, social support.

Therefore, my dissertation project is a qualitative study aimed to see whether males and females experience different psychological effects during injury (stress, fear of re-injury anxiety) and whether this would lead to different rehabilitation being needed.