Addressing Concussion Symptoms in Youth Sport

Understanding the Issue

Young athletes often feel pressure to play through injuries due to factors like fear of disappointing their team, uncertainty about concussion symptoms, and societal expectations of toughness.

Coaches also play a role, sometimes hesitating to remove athletes due to similar uncertainty about the injury.

This creates a potentially dangerous situation where concussions are ignored, putting young athletes at risk for further harm and longer recovery times.

This page provides resources on the issue of under-reporting concussion symptoms in youth sports. These sharable resources highlight the importance of creating a "culture of self-reporting and removal," where athletes feel empowered to speak up about potential concussions, and coaches are supported in making safe decisions to protect their players.

Dr. Alison Doherty's research is supported in part by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council