Football team social structure and perceived support for reporting concussion symptoms: Insights from a social network analysis

Social network analysis (SNA) is a uniquely situated methodology to examine the social connections between players on a team, and how team structure may be related to self-reported team cohesion and perceived support for reporting concussion symptoms. Team belonging was positively associated with number of friendship ties (degree; r =.23, p <.05), intermediate ties between teammates (betweenness; r =.21, p <.05), and support from both teammates (r =.21, p <.05) and important others (r =.21, p <.05) for reporting concussion symptoms. Additionally, an SNA-derived measure of social influence, eigenvector centrality, was associated with football identity (r =.34, p <.01), and less support from important others (r = –.24, p <.05) regarding symptom reporting. Discussion focuses on why consideration of social influence dynamics may help improve concussion-related education efforts.