Athletes who participate in contact sports have a greater tolerance for pain, thus potentially increasing their chances of serious injury, according to a Wheeling Jesuit University study.

The study, conducted by Dr. Bryan Raudenbush, assistant professor of psychology at Wheeling Jesuit, and a group of his students, assessed pain threshold and tolerance among intercollegiate male athletes participating in a variety of contact and non-contact sports. Measures of aggressiveness, competitiveness and workload were recorded to serve as co-variates.

“Pain and injury are often a consequence of sports play,” says Raudenbush. “In addition, the likelihood of experiencing pain and injury increases as physical contact among athletes increases. Athletes who build a high tolerance for pain can compete longer with an injury, which may make their injury more serious.”

Raudenbush based his study on research showing previous experience with pain has a desensitizing effect on pain threshold and tolerance. Such a desensitizing effect may be more prevalent among contact sports athletes than non-contact sports athletes.

The study assessed 128 athletes who were members of an intercollegiate lacrosse, soccer, basketball, track or swimming team. Athletes underwent a cold pressor pain test (3° C water bath), during which they rated their level of pain every 30 sec. In addition, pain tolerance (total time the athletes allowed themselves to experience the painful stimuli) was measured. Several psychological variables, including level of aggressiveness, were also calculated.

Raudenbush says athletes participating in contact sports (particularly lacrosse players) rated their pain as less severe and had a greater pain tolerance time than non-contact sports athletes. Physical and temporal demand, and level of frustration, was lower for high-contact sports. Level of aggressiveness was greater in the high-contact sports, however, an analysis of co-variance using aggressiveness as the covariate did not alter the outcomes of the pain threshold and tolerance measures. According to Raudenbush, these results provide support for the role of physical contact on desensitizing athletes to pain.

Raudenbush hopes to now specifically study contact athletes to determine if they are willing to accept more pain, play with increased levels of pain, and then determine if their tolerance for pain leads to injuries.

Students assisting Raudenbush with the study include Brian Meyer of Baltimore; Nathan Corley of Proctor, W.Va.; Jerrod Koon of Parkersburg, W.Va.; and Ashley Kozlowski of Bellaire, Ohio.

Wheeling Jesuit University was named the 14th best master’s university in the south region by U.S.News & World Report, making it the highest ranked institution in West Virginia. The 65-acre campus located in Wheeling, W.Va., offers more than 31 undergraduate programs of study and six graduate degrees to about 1,500 students each year. Wheeling Jesuit is home to the Robert C. Byrd National Technology Transfer Center, the Erma Ora Byrd Center for Educational Technologies, a Challenger Learning Center and the Clifford M. Lewis Appalachian Institute.