Fitzgerald, Elly (2021) Examining the Relationship Between Current Psychosocial Status and Retrospective Estimates of Past Concussions in Retired Professional Rugby League Players. Honours thesis, University of Southern Queensland. (Unpublished)
Abstract
Sports related concussion is an issue affecting many high contact sports with an increasing interest as to how these repetitive concussions impact players later in life. Rugby league has high incidents of concussive injury, yet suffers from a dearth in the literature establishing if there is a connection between the number of concussions sustained and post retirement psychosocial functioning. This study aimed to examine the relationship between current psychosocial status and retrospective estimates of concussions received during professional players careers. The sample included 145 retired professional rugby league players using archival data from an ongoing study conducted by the University of Newcastle. A quasiexperimental design was utilised that assessed the participants on post-concussive symptoms, levels of distress, alcohol, sleep, resilience, pain, anger and aggression, and impulsivity. The goals of the study were to establish if controls and retired players differ in their current ratings of post-concussion symptoms and other psychosocial measures, if retired players differ in their ratings of post-concussion symptoms and other psychosocial measures based on the number of concussions sustained, and if symptoms that are reported as ‘post-concussion’ are more strongly related to current psychosocial status or retrospective player variables. Findings indicated that while there were differences between controls and retired players on most measures, there was no relationship between current psychosocial status of retired players and retrospective player variables, with further analyses indicating that players’ psychosocial status is the result of current levels of distress.
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| Item Type: | Thesis (Non-Research) (Honours) |
|---|---|
| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Additional Information: | Current UniSQ staff and students can request access to this thesis. Please email research.repository@unisq.edu.au with a subject line of SEAR thesis request and provide: Name of the thesis requested and Your name and UniSQ email address |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Historic - Faculty of Health, Engineering and Sciences - School of Psychology and Counselling (1 Jan 2015 - 31 Dec 2021) |
| Supervisors: | Graeme Senior; Adina Piovesana |
| Qualification: | Bachelor of Science (Honours) |
| Date Deposited: | 24 Jul 2025 00:10 |
| Last Modified: | 24 Jul 2025 00:10 |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | sports related concussion ; rugby ; retired players ; psychosocial ; long-term |
| Fields of Research (2008): | 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 1799 Other Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 179999 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences not elsewhere classified |
| Fields of Research (2020): | 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5299 Other psychology > 529999 Other psychology not elsewhere classified |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/52320 |
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