| Poster | Poster Session 05 Program Schedule
02/15/2024
02:30 pm - 03:45 pm
Room: Majestic Complex (Posters 61-120)
Poster Session 05: Neuropsychiatry | Addiction/Dependence | Stress/Coping | Emotional/Social Processes
Final Abstract #98
Examining the Relationship Between History of Previous Concussion and Perceived Stress
Katherine Balay, Penn State University, State College, United States
Garrett Thomas, Penn State University, State College, United States
Peter Arnett, Penn State University, State College, United States
Category: Concussion/Mild TBI (Adult)
Keyword 1: concussion/ mild traumatic brain injury
Objective:
Concussive events can be considered as a stressor due to the acute physiological changes associated with the injury, as well as common emotional and behavioral sequelae. However, there is minimal research on how sustaining concussion(s) affect perceived stress, and the literature that is available is mixed. Some previous research has found that greater perceived stress is associated with more intense post-concussive symptoms (Machulda et al., 1998; Johnsdotter, et. al 2021 Therefore, the objective of this study is to further investigate whether a history of concussion(s) is associated with perceived stress to better understand this relationship. We predict that individuals with a history of concussion will report greater perceived stress, and that individuals with more previous concussions will report higher levels of perceived stress.
Participants and Methods:
176 (68% female) students attending the Pennsylvania State University were involved in this study. The study included a background questionnaire inquiring about their history of concussion(s), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). A total PSS score was calculated by summing responses for all ten items with higher scores indicating greater perceived stress. Participants were initially separated into two groups based on their reported concussion history (zero previous concussions = 134 participants; one or more previous concussion(s) = 42 participants). We conducted an independent samples t-test comparing the two groups with total PSS scores as the outcome variable. Then, to address our second hypothesis, we conducted a linear regression examining the relationship between perceived stress and the number of previous concussions as a continuous variable. Sex, depression, and anxiety were examined as potential covariates for all analyses.
Results:
For the first set of analyses, there were no significant group differences in terms of sex, depression, or anxiety. Results of the t-test revealed no significant group differences in terms of perceived stress, t(175) = -1.11, p = .20, as there were comparable levels of perceived stress between participants with a history of concussion (M = 23.24, SD = 3.27) and those without a history of concussion (M = 22.41, SD = 4.46). Next, we found that anxiety and female sex were associated with greater perceived stress; thus, these variables were included as covariates in the linear regression. After controlling for anxiety and sex, we found that the number of previous concussions was not associated with perceived stress t(171) = 0.60, p = .55.
Conclusions:
Taken together, we found that students with a history of concussion were not more susceptible to psychological factors, like stress, depression, or anxiety, compared to those without history of concussion. These results suggest that history of concussion(s) is not a risk factor for greater perceived stress during college. Notably, our sample included both students and student-athletes, so future work should examine whether there are differences between students and student-athletes in terms of previous concussion(s) and perceived stress.
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