The purpose of this article is to map existing research literature on athletes and coaches' attitudes toward protective headgear in sport in relation to concussion and head injury prevention, and to identify and analyse knowledge gaps in the field. A scoping review was conducted in three databases; PubMed, Scopus, SportDiscus, and reference lists were searched to identify relevant grey literature. This process lead to an in-depth analysis of 18 peer-reviewed journal articles. Of the 18 studies identified, the majority focused on athletes (n = 14), only two studies focused on coaches, and two studies included a sample of both athletes and coaches. The findings in this scoping review suggests that there is a discrepancy between attitudes and beliefs about the protective effects of headgear, athletes' behaviour as far as wearing protective headgear, and coaches' behaviour in terms of recommending use of protective headgear to their athletes. The majority of athletes in most of the reviewed literature believed that headgear had protective effects against concussion and other head injuries, however relatively few athletes report wearing this protective headgear unless it was mandatory by competition rules.

Body concerns and stress-related disorders are increasing in the younger population in a wide range of nations. Studies find links between both self-worth, exercise dependence, and self-esteem in relation to stress, but few have considered all three variables in relation to one another. The present study explored whether the co-appearance of high levels of psychological distress, and low levels of self-esteem may be a vulnerability factor for developing exercise dependence by studying the links between self-esteem, psychological stress, and exercise dependence. A standardized cross-sectional questionnaire was completed by 203 regular exercisers attending two gyms (mean age: 35.9 years). The variables self-esteem, psychological distress, and exercise dependence were all significantly correlated with each other, even after weekly exercise amount, age, and gender had been accounted for. Those who exercised for more than 9 h per week had a significantly higher score on stress and exercise dependence symptoms, and a lower score on self-esteem compared with the remaining groups. One could hypothesize that low self-esteem is a vulnerability factor and high psychological stress a maintenance factor for an exercise-dependent person. It is argued that more focus should be directed toward the negative consequences of excessive exercise.

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