Publication Date

2026

Presentation Length

Poster/Gallery presentation

College

College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences

Department

Mental Health Counseling, School of

Student Level

Graduate

Faculty Mentor

Dr. Mitchell Waters

Metadata/Fulltext

Metadata ONLY

Presentation Type

Poster

Summary

Sport injury-related growth (SIRG) describes an athlete’s perceived psychological benefits from a sport injury. The present study examines a sample of 54 collegiate athletes who have sustained a sport-related injury and their perceived SIRG. Expanding upon previous literature, this study compares internal and external resources as predictors of SIRG– specifically, athletic identity and spiritual well-being, and social support. Preliminary subscale analyses isolated existential well-being (EWB) and the social identity (SI) dimension of athletic identity as the internal resources. Subsequent regressions confirmed EWB, SI, and social support as predictors of SIRG. Exploratory subgroup and moderation analyses revealed that gender moderated the internal variables, with EWB and SI functioning as internal predictors of SIRG among female athletes. Conversely, gender did not moderate the impact of social support, suggesting that its impact is universal. A mediation model revealed that the difference in the use of social support fully mediated the relationship between gender and SIRG. Findings suggest demographically conditional pathways to SIRG and invite mental health and sport professionals to consider psychosocial and existential integration into sport-injury recovery.

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