Predicting Concussion Reporting

Intention in Elon Club and Varsity

Student-Athletes

NICOLE THOMAS, BS

Elon BrainCARE Research Institute

UNCG Master’s in Public Health Education Program
UNCG Institute to Promote Athlete Health and Wellness
 What is a concussion?

● A type of traumatic brain injury (TBI), caused by a bump,

blow, or jolt to the head or by a hit to the body that causes
the head and brain to move rapidly back and forth (CDC)
 Continued..

● Short and long-term neurological and functional

consequences
○ Short-term:deficits in attention, learning and memory,
complex problem solving, reaction times
○ Long-term: depression, diminished quality of life

● Importance of a student-athlete (SA) concussion reporting

○ Symptoms are not always visible
○ At risk for magnified and prolonged
neuropsychological consequences
 Background

● How common are sports and recreation related

concussions?
○ Between 1.6 to 3.8 million each year
● Likely represents only half of concussions that
actually occur.
○ Estimates suggest in some student-athlete (SA) populations up
to 80% of suspected sports-related concussions go unreported
● Current concussion education programming
○ Only target concussion knowledge

● Competitive climate of collegiate sports

 Purpose of this study

● Incorporate psychosocial constructs to explore why

student-athletes are failing to report SRCs
○ Theory of Planned Behavior
• Intention*
 Elon Student-Athlete Demographics

● 535 student-athletes
○ 402 club, 133 varsity
● Gender
○ Male 277 , female 258
● Race/Ethnicity
○ White 453 (84%), African American 30 (6%), Hispanic/Latino 29
(5.4%), Asian 17 (3%), other 5 (1%)
● NCAA classified tier
○ Limited contact 121 (22%)
○ Contact 102 (19%)
○ Contact and collision 295 (59%)
● Scholarship status
○ None 402 (74%)
○ Partial 82 (15%)
○ Full 51 (10%)
● Concussion reporting intention

● Conformity to masculine norms

● Athletic identity

● Academic identity

● Knowledge of concussions
Models
Linear Regression Results
Continued..
 Results

● At first gender was associated with concussion

reporting intention
○ Females have a higher intention to report
● But was no longer significant after adding other
predictors
● Remaining predictors that were significant included
○ Club or varsity
○ Academic identity
○ Conformity to masculine norms
● All three of these accounted for 9% of the variance
 Conclusion and Implications

● Academic identity and conformity to masculine

norms significantly predicted student-athlete intention
to report.

● Findings suggest we take a deeper look into what

predicts these variables to further impact reporting
behaviors

● Understanding predictors of reporting intention can

inform future research on how to target and improve
concussion programming
Questions?