Quinn Johnsson, Leslie Podlog, Jeffrey G. Caron, Miriam Beauchamp, Marie-Lyne Nault, Isabelle Doré, Ross Wadey, Noémie Demers, Louis-David Bernier-Cloutier

While there are existing measures of psychological readiness to return to sport after injury (I-PPRS, ACL-RSI), their content validity has been questioned, and none have been developed for an adolescent population. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to understand key dimensions and develop preliminary items regarding psychological readiness to return to sport following injury. Item development was based on a review of extant measures, past research, and semi-structured interviews with 7 injured adolescents and 21 support providers. We used inductive and deductive codebook thematic analysis to develop dimensions and candidate items for inclusion in an adolescent psychological readiness measure. The 7 dimensions and sample items include: 1) perceptions of physical recovery (item: I have completely recovered from my injury), 2) safe and effective performance of technical skills (item: I can safely perform the sports skills needed for my competitive league), 3) belonging to the team (item: I feel welcome on the team), 4) congruency of athlete beliefs and performance indicators (item: My physical performance reflects how ready I feel), 5) attentional focus on sport cues (item: I can stay focused on what’s important during competition, 6) approach-related emotions (item: I am excited to go back to my sport), and 7) emotionally grounded-avoidant behaviours (item: My reinjury concerns make me hesitate during competition). Next steps include psychometric testing of the content validity and reliability of items. Researchers and care providers can use this measure to assess psychological readiness and inform psychological support decisions when preparing athletes to return to sport.