Adolescent Athletes: Understanding the Complexities of Sports Participation, Injury Risk, and Injury Experience

Participation in youth sports brings about a bounty of benefits to adolescents socially, mentally and physically. However, increased sports participation and intensity brings about a risk of injury and burnout. Several factors can lead to an increased risk of injury such as poor motor control, high training load, previous injury and sport type. The experience of adolescents with sports related pain and injury is an important area that needs to be explored further to better understand the experiences in this age group. A mixed methods approach was used to explore different areas of sports participation and experiences. Firstly, a systematic review of sports related pain and injuries was carried out using a meta – aggregation of qualitative research. The synthesis showed that sports related pain and injuries were found to bring several experiences both positive (motivation, social support) and negative (fear of re injury, isolation, mental impact). The subsequent studies involved a cohort study of 140 adolescents aged 14-19 who volunteered to carry out a dynamic balance test as well as an assessment of their sports participation characteristics injury history and a longitudinal survey reporting their bi-weekly training load. The dynamic balance capability test showed that those who took their sport more seriously had better dynamic balance than those who did not. The study found minimal impact of primary sport choice and participation in multiple sports with dynamic balance capability. While some minor differences were observed, the findings suggest that these factors alone do not significantly influence dynamic balance in youth athletes, warranting further research. The final chapter explored the associations between training load, dynamic balance capability, and previous injury history. The study found no significant correlations between these variables, despite previous research suggesting links between injury history and impaired dynamic balance. The findings emphasise the complexity of these interactions and the need for further investigation in larger or more targeted studies. Overall, this thesis highlights the multifaceted nature of sports injuries in adolescents, highlighting the need for comprehensive approaches to injury prevention and rehabilitation that consider both physical and psychological factors.