Title: (Re)assessing the risk agenda: Exploring social discourses of risk and tailoring measures to reduce injury risk in recreational adolescent runners.
Funder: Economic and Social Research Council

Abstract: To date, my research has largely focused on athlete health protection, with an emphasis on 'injury prevention.' This has included applying qualitative and quantitative research methods to support efforts to assess and reduce 'injury risk' in competitive adolescent runners (13 to 18 year olds), in partnership with England Athletics. This ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship will allow me to consolidate and further build on sociological elements of my PhD research, aiming to: (1) Publish articles from an existing PhD dataset. (2) Explore how 'injury risk' is communicated in the Sport and Health Sciences literature, within a wider frame of 'social discourses of risk,' to examine how an injury is both experienced and understood by competitive and recreational adolescent runners. (3) Broaden the application and impact of my prior research by tailoring injury risk reduction measures for recreational adolescent runners. The objectives of this Fellowship are as follows: (1) To publish three high-quality journal articles. This will include publishing two articles using data from a longitudinal dataset, generated during my PhD, in addition to publishing a novel theoretical article exploring how 'injury risk' is (and could be) communicated in the field of Sport and Health Sciences - informed by existing sociological theories of risk. (2) To undertake a qualitative study to investigate how recreational adolescent runners understand and manage 'injury risk.' This study will account for ~10% of the work programme, is informed by my PhD research, and will help shape a future funding proposal. (3) To deliver a series of co-creation workshops to share the content and form of pre-existing injury risk reduction measures with key stakeholders (e.g., parents/carers), and adapt suitable measures for recreational adolescent runners. These workshops will help shape a future Fellowship proposal. (4) To attend a training course related to developing and evaluating complex public health interventions. This course will be delivered by the Centre for Development, Evaluation, Complexity, and Implementation in Public Health Improvement (University of Cardiff). (5) To develop a Fellowship proposal aligned to a suitable funding body. This proposal will be aimed at evaluating the feasibility of implementing the co-created injury risk reduction measures for recreational adolescent runners. (6) To communicate research findings to academic and non-academic audiences by: (A) presenting at two academic conferences, including the: British Sociological Association Medical Sociology Conference, and European College of Sport Science Congress; (B) publishing two non-academic outputs, including an online article for The Conversation; and (C) commissioning an artist to create a digital 'storyboard' illustration that will detail the process followed when co-creating the injury risk reduction measures. (7) To build networks to develop collaboration and impact opportunities by: (A) completing an overseas research visit to the Amsterdam Collaboration on Health and Safety in Sport (Amsterdam UMC, Netherlands) - 1 of 11 global International Olympic Committee Research Centres. This visit will last two weeks and aims to establish international networks and explore opportunities to collaborate. In-kind mentorship will be provided by Prof. Evert Verhagen, co-chair of this centre, for the full duration of this visit; (B) hosting a collaborative meeting with researchers from the Athletics Research Centre, Linköping University (Sweden), and members of European Athletics to share best practices surrounding injury risk reduction in competitive and recreational runners; and (C) organise meetings with researchers from The Podium Analytics Institute for Youth Sport Medicine and Technology, University of Oxford (UK), in addition to relevant staff from England Athletics and parkrun, to discuss how to integrate my findings within these organisations.

Lay abstract: Globally, running is one of the most popular physical activities among children and adolescents [1]. In England, the COVID-19 pandemic led to a 4.5% increase in the prevalence of 5 to 16 year olds taking part in running, athletics, and multi-sports [2]. Given that participation in running is related to many health benefits in adults [3], increased participation levels in children and adolescents can be considered a positive development. However, participation is also related to adverse outcomes, such as injury [4]. For example, a key finding from my PhD showed that the incidence of injury in competitive adolescent runners was 25.0 per 1,000 hours of exposure [5]. In turn, sustaining an injury may reduce current and future physical activity levels [6]. Despite such a high injury rate, this problem rarely receives attention from policymakers. Sport-related injury is rarely viewed as a public health issue, despite similar injury rates in other areas of social life (e.g., work) being almost certain to receive attention [7]. With the above statement in mind, does there not need to be a coordinated and societal agenda to reduce the risk of injury in competitive and recreational adolescent runners - as a fundamental duty of care? Such an agenda would likely improve health-related quality of life across the life course. One possible way to establish such an agenda - as an extension of my PhD - is to explore this problem in relation to social discourses of risk [8]. In short, this means studying how running-related injury is experienced and understood by adolescent runners and how injury risk is (and could be) communicated in the field of Sport and Health Sciences. The broad idea behind this is to seek alternative ways of framing injury risk that do not depend on using a technical-objectivist definition of risk [9], which situates risk as a quantifiable estimate of events [10]. In turn, this will help to ensure that risk reduction measures for adolescent runners accounts for socio-cultural and individual approaches. To address these points, this ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship will enable me to complete the following activities: (1) Write a novel theoretical article exploring how existing sociological theories of risk can be applied to the field of Sport and Health Sciences, in addition to completing data collection for a qualitative study investigating how adolescent runners understand and manage their personal injury risk. (2) Use a longitudinal dataset that I developed during my PhD to publish two articles. The first article will examine whether injury affects the psychological mood states of competitive adolescent runners. The second will explore if sustaining a non-time loss injury affects the subsequent time loss injury risk. These articles will improve our knowledge on how runners can best manage injury and maintain health. (3) Deliver a series of stakeholder workshops to tailor the content and form of pre-existing (as developed for competitive runners during my PhD) injury risk reduction measures for recreational adolescent runners. The completion of these activities, combined with the mentorship of Prof. Wyatt and attendance to a relevant training course, will also allow me to draft a Fellowship proposal to evaluate the effectiveness of applying injury risk reduction measures for recreational adolescent runners in practice. To complement these activities, I will also use this Fellowship to communicate my research findings to a diverse set of audiences. This will include attending two academic conferences, publishing two non-academic outputs, and commissioning a digital storyboard illustration related to the injury risk-reduction measures. I will also build networks to develop collaboration and impact opportunities, including an institutional visit to the Amsterdam Collaboration on Health and Safety in Sport and hosting meetings with key external organisations (e.g., England Athletics).

Research activity codes: 3.2 INTERVENTIONS TO ALTER PHYSICAL AND BIOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENTAL RISKS
Health categories: INJURIES AND ACCIDENTS