Lower resilience scores associated with higher symptom burden at initial clinic visit and at 3 months out in adolescent and young adult athletes

By Will Altaweel. This article was initially published in our Concussion Update newsletter; please consider subscribing.

A study conducted by Stephen C. Bunt et al. found that low resilience was associated with a greater number and increased severity of symptoms three months following a sports-related concussion (SRC). The study, published in the Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, included 332 participants (ages 13-25) who sustained an SRC. Resilience was measured by the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS), and participants were classified as having low, average, or high resilience based on their scores. 

The BRS consists of five questions, with the participant responding on a five-point scale from ‘strongly disagree’ to ‘strongly agree.’ The questions are: I tend to bounce back quickly after hard times; I have a hard time making it through stressful events; It does not take me long to recover from a stressful event; It is hard for me to snap back when something bad happens; I usually come through difficult times with little trouble; I tend to take a long time to get over set-backs in my life.

According to the authors, “lower resilience ratings at initial visit were associated with a greater number and severity of post concussion symptom scores along with higher levels of anxiety and depression symptoms during recovery.” At three months post-injury, those with low resilience had significantly more symptoms and greater symptom severity than those with average or high resilience. In addition, 33.6%of those with low resilience were symptomatic at the three-month follow-up compared with 17.6%and 12% of those with average and high resilience, respectively. 

Based on the findings, the authors suggested that concussion patients’ recovery may be improved by an intervention that aims to increase resilience in low-resilience individuals.