SSIRG members receive $200,000 SSHRC Partnership Development grant
This interdisciplinary research project investigates the social factors associated with effective youth sport concussion management. It will be undertaken by a new partnership of scholars and sport community stakeholders with a common interest in youth sport concussion and a goal to advance understanding about mechanisms to "play safe sport" (SIRC, 2018a). Despite an increase in awareness campaigns, and the development of policies and protocols to guide safe practice, evidence continues to demonstrate that there are low levels of recognition of concussion and athlete's removal from play following a blow to the head in youth sport. To understand these challenges, there are calls for the consideration of sport-related concussion from a multi-level systems perspective that accounts for the individual, family, peers, coach, club, policy and broad societal factors that likely shape safe practices. This project addresses that call by developing a model that maps and further investigates the youth sport concussion landscape in Canada, identifying the parties involved at multiple levels of action and influence, and their interconnections. This represents a major shift from the almost exclusive focus on medical models of concussion management.
The specific objectives of the project are to:
- Map the parties, and their respective and interrelated roles, involved with youth sport concussion management
- Describe intrapersonal, interpersonal, organizational, regulatory and societal (including cultural) facilitators and barriers to concussion awareness and recognition, and removal from play
- Mobilize evidence to inform multi-level, collective strategies for addressing effective youth sport concussion management.
