Background: Injury is one of the risks of performing regular sports activities, which causes mild to severe physical discomfort and emotional distress for athletes. Objective: As there is not much research on the psychological aspects of pain perception of athletes, the main purpose of this study was to investigate differences in pain coping styles according to gender and type of sport. Methods: The sample consisted of 147 athletes (101 men, 46 women) who reported a previous sports-related injury, with an average age of 20.82 ± 1.61 years, involved in individual (n = 59) and team (n = 88) sports. The pain perception was evaluated by Sports Inventory for Pain (SIP15) comprised of three subscales: coping by direct action, catastrophizing, and somatic awareness. Results: We found that men perceive pain in sport more intensely and sensitively than women (p = .01, r = .21). Nevertheless, men consider pain to be more bearable and give up less than women (p = .05, r = .16). In individual and team sports, we did not find significant differences in response to painful stimuli, but in terms of giving up due to the perceived pain, the athletes of individual sports scored higher values than athletes of team sports (p = .04, r = .17). In coping by direct action, we also did not find significant differences between gender or types of sports. Conclusions: The results of our research suggest that pain perception is one of the factors influencing giving up in the sport. Therefore, we recommend that this aspect be considered in psychological preparation and that the efforts of sports psychologists should focus on eliminating escape reactions, especially for women, which would contribute to higher mental resilience and effective management of painful obstacles. We also recommend implementing psychological preparation aimed at overcoming pain more in individual sports, because it seems that individual athletes can handle pain much more difficultly than collective athletes.
V príspevku sa zameriavame na postoje študentov FTVŠ UK na tetovanie. Na zistenie postojov sme použili nami zostrojený neštandardizovaný dotazník s otázkami ohľadom tetovaní. Výskumnú vzorku tvorilo 142 študentov (n=142), priemerný vek bol 20,26 roka. Zistili sme, že v našom výskumnom súbore je tetovaných 17,6 % respondentov a tetovanie sa páči až 83,8 % študentom. V budúcnosti by sa chcelo dať tetovať 39,4 % respondentov. Existuje signifikantne významný negatívny vzťah medzi tetováciou a užívaním alkoholu. Ďalším existujúcim významným vzťahom je negatívny vzťah medzi páčením tetovaní a námietkam voči tetovaniam u zdravotníckych pracovníkov.
In the research we focus on opinions of students from FTVŠ UK about tattoos. Tattoos are defined as kind of needling colorful elements into injured skin. Tattoos are very popular among young people, however in our society there are various opinions on them. Tattoos are a form of self-expression, a reference to some social group, a fashion accessory or simple a need to differ from others. There are some health risks according to tattoos such as AIDS, hepatitis C or tetanus but also allergies, cysts or bleeding. Prejudices toward tattoos are lower when a person has his own tattoo on body. Some researchers found out that people who wear tattoos are more liable to alcohol and drug usage and their sexual behavior is more risky compared to people who don’t wear tattoos. Another research focused on relationship between wearing a tattoo and self-confidence or wearing a tattoo and personality characteristics. They found out that women who wear four or more tattoos seemed to be more self-confident compared to women who don’t wear any tattoo or who wear three or less tattoos. Another finding was that people who wear tattoos are more conscientious, extroverted, sexually unattached and they were in more need of attention and uniqueness compared to people who don’t wear any tattoo. Another topic is prejudice to tattoos and tattooed people entirely. Considering another research, it seemed to be common that people who don’t have tattoo have more prejudices to tattooed people regarding to larger area tattooed. So, the larger area on body is tattooed the more prejudices from people without tattoos are coming. Tattooed people seemed to be more tolerant to other people tattoos. We used a non-standardized questionnaire made by us to find out the opinions of students. Research sample consisted of 142 students (n=142), average age was 20,26 years. Following our findings, we found out that in our research sample there were 17,6% of respondents who have tattoo and even 83,8% of respondents like tattoos. In future would like to have a tattoo 39,4% of respondents, 23,2% don’t want any and 37,3% don’t know yet. Majority of respondents (57%) think that tattoo is considered neutral in our society, 40,2% think that tattoos are acceptable and 2,8% think that tattoos are not acceptable in our society. Moreover 90,1% of respondents consider tattoos as a form of art. The most objections to tattoos in various professions had health workers when 18,4% of respondents present they have a problem with health workers wearing a tattoo. Next profession with the most objections to tattoos was government workers with 17,6% and teachers, trainers and workers on official positions (such as bank workers or driver in public transport) least objections to tattoos (9,2%). Our respondents were very satisfied with their tattoos (75%) or satisfied with their tattoos (25%). None of our respondents was unsatisfied with his or her tattoo. The strongest motive to get a tattoo was a personally important event or memory in 60% of respondents with tattoo. In our research sample there were 4,2% smokers, 19,7% occasional smokers, 4,2% past smokers and 71,8% nonsmokers. We found a significant negative relationship between having a tattoo and use of alcohol and significant relationship between having a tattoo and planning to get a tattoo in future. Another finding is that there is a significant negative relationship between liking tattoos and objections against tattoos among healthcare workers.
