| The purpose of this study was to use the health belief model (Rosenstock, 1974) as a framework for examining perceptions of injury susceptibility among high school athletes who participate in football. A second purpose was to determine if high school football players' perceived susceptibility to sport-related injuries were influenced by position played, age, goal orientation, and having a history of injuries. The achievement goal theory was used to determine the goal orientation of the athletes. The research design for this study was quantitative and nonexperimental using a cross-sectional approach to answer the research questions. Questionnaires were distributed to 1,100 football players in a two county area in Northwest Florida, and 288 questionnaires were returned for analysis. The questionnaires were distributed and collected over a one month period during the 2016 spring semester. Participants' ages ranged from 14--17. All football positions were represented and were categorized into three groups. The groups were offensive/defensive line (N = 86, 29.7%), offense not line (N = 83, 28.6%), and defense not line (N = 95, 32.8%). Athletes' overall perceived susceptibility to sport-related injuries was neutral with an average 2.73 on a five point Likert-like scale.;Data analysis revealed perceived susceptibility to sport-related injury differed most between the offensive/defensive lineman and offensive not line group. Additionally, athletes who had a history of injuries also influenced perceived susceptibility to sport-related injury. The other variables did not significantly affect high school football players' perceived susceptibility to sport-related injury. |
