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As head injuries in American football have received increasing publicity, the safety of the sport has become a great concern for parents nationwide. The purpose of this study was to examine perceived safety concerns in youth football using Eccles’ expectancy-value model (Eccles et al., 1983). We hypothesized perceived safety concerns to moderate relationships between parent perceptions of parent cost/benefit, child cost/benefit, and child motivation and enjoyment outcomes for football. Youth football parents (N = 105, M _age = 42) completed valid and reliable online assessments of study variables. Regression analyses revealed child safety concerns (as rated by parents) to mediate, rather than moderate, the relationship between parent safety concerns and child cost perceptions (as rated by parents). Furthermore, safety concerns did not significantly associate with child achievement outcomes of motivation and enjoyment. Results provide valuable insight into parent and child attitudes toward youth football safety. Such knowledge may inform future educational interventions targeting sport safety promotion.

Sport specialization has been linked to multiple negative health related outcomes including increased injury risk and sport attrition, yet a gap remains in our understanding of potential psychological outcomes of early specialization (≤ age 12). The current study evaluated the associations between retrospective athlete reports of sport specialization and both retroactive and current psychological health outcomes. Early specializers reported significantly higher levels of multiple maladaptive psychological outcomes (e.g., global athlete burnout, emotional and physical exhaustion, sport devaluation, amotivation). Overall, findings suggest that specialization environment factors, in addition to the age of specialization, are potentially critical factors in determining health and well-being outcomes. Findings support prominent position statements suggesting early specialization may be associated with increased health risks. Study findings may also inform the development of guidelines and recommendations to aid parents, coaches, and athletes in positively impacting athlete psychosocial outcomes.

Context: Currently, there is no gold standard to evaluate the effect of varying game-like exertion states on Sport Concussion Assessment Tool 3rd Edition (SCAT-3) outcomes. Baseline assessments may occur before, during, or after physical activity, while postinjury evaluations predominantly occur following physical activity. Thus, clinicians may be comparing postinjury evaluations completed following exertion to baseline evaluations completed following varying levels of rest or exertion, which may not be a valid method for clinical decision making. Objective: To determine the effect of various physical exertion levels on sideline concussion assessment outcomes and reliability. Design: Within-subjects, repeated measures. Setting: Field. Participants: Physically active participants (N = 36) who regularly participate in basketball activity. Intervention: Subjects participated in 2 simulated basketball games, completing a symptom checklist, Standardized Assessment of Concussion, and Balance Error Scoring System before game play, during halftime, and at the completion of each simulated game. Pulse rate was assessed as a proxy of physical exertion. Main Outcome Measures: Total symptom, Standardized Assessment of Concussion, and Balance Error Scoring System scores. Results: Physical exertion did not significantly predict symptom, Standardized Assessment of Concussion, or Balance Error Scoring System scores, although a trend toward higher symptom scores was observed for females (ß = 0.03, P = .09). All assessments had poor to moderate reliability across sessions (.15 < interclass correlation coefficient [2,1] < .60). Conclusion: Low- to moderate-intensity physical activity did not have a significant effect on clinical concussion sideline assessments; however, the low test–retest reliability observed prevents strong conclusions on these relationships. The poor overall reliability does not allow for clear recommendations for what state of baseline physical exertion (ie, rested or exerted) provides optimal data to make postinjury clinical decisions, although baseline concussion assessments completed at rest have the most valid and conservative normative values for injury comparison.

Competitive sport involves physical and psychological stressors, such as training load and stress perceptions, that athletes must adapt to in order to maintain health and performance. Psychological resilience, one’s capacity to equilibrate or adapt affective and behavioral responses to adverse physical or emotional experiences, is an important topic in athlete training and performance. The study purpose was to investigate associations of training load and perceived sport stress with athlete psychological resilience trajectories. Sixty-one collegiate club athletes (30 females and 31 males) completed self-reported surveys over 6 weeks of training. Athletes significantly differed in resilience at the beginning of competitive training. Baseline resilience differences were associated with resilience trajectories. Perceived stress and training load were negatively associated with resilience. Physical and psychological stressors had a small but statistically significant impact on resilience across weeks of competitive training, indicating that both types of stressors should be monitored to maintain athlete resilience.

Written health and safety policies mitigate catastrophic outcomes resulting from sport injuries. The purpose of this project was to evaluate athletic trainers’ proficiency in evaluating catastrophic policies and procedures alignment with best practices. This study found athletic trainers were not able to identify the majority of policy and procedure components based on evidence-based best practice documents. Furthermore, athletic trainers tended to focus more on aesthetics and feasibility versus alignment with current best practices. Results support the need to enhance education specific to policy and procedure development, evaluation, and implementation in order to improve proficiency of clinicians.