Factors influencing sport injury risk, rehabilitation outcomes, and return to sport processes have been the focus in various research disciplines (sports medicine, psychology and sociology). One discipline, with over 50 years of scholarship, is the psychology of sport injury. Despite the research in this field, there is no evidence-based consensus to inform professional practice. The aim of this original and timely consensus statement is to summarise psychological sport injury research and provide consensus recommendations for sport practitioners seeking to implement psychological principles into clinical practice. A total of seven experts with extensive experience outlined the consensus objectives and identified three psychology of sport injury sub-domains: risk, rehabilitation and return to sport. The researchers, grouped in pairs, prepared initial drafts of assigned sub-domains. The group met in Stockholm, and the three texts were merged into a draft and revised in an iterative process. Stress responses are the strongest psychological risk factor for acute injuries. Intra- and interpersonal factors, as well as sociocultural factors, are demonstrated psychosocial risk factors for overuse injuries. Stress management and mindfulness interventions to prevent injuries have been successfully implemented. The rehabilitation process may influence athlete’s cognitive, emotional, and behavioural responses. Social support, mindfulness, acceptance-based practices, and cognitive-behavioural based intervention programs reduce negative reactions. Return to sport includes various stages and different trajectories. Returning athletes typically experience concerns regarding competence, autonomy, and relatedness. It is recommended that athletes focus on the physical, technical, and psychological demands of their sport as they progress to increasingly intense activities. Interdisciplinary collaboration (e.g., sports medicine and psychology) would be beneficial in enhancing clinical practice and improving athlete outcomes. © The Author(s) 2024.

The creation of risk profiles using the model of stress and athletic injury1 represents a proposed shift from the reductionism paradigm to the complex sport approach in an attempt to formulate prevention strategies to combat the increasing number of injuries being reported in sporting populations. As a result, the primary purpose of this study was to: a) identify different risk profiles based on psychosocial factors associated with the Williams and Andersen’s model of stress and athletic injury model; and b) examine potential differences in the frequency of injuries across these risk profiles. A prospective research design was utilized with a sample of 117 competitive soccer players (81 males and 36 females) from Sweden and the United States of America. Data was collected at two time points over the course of three months. At time 1 (beginning of the season) - a demographic information sheet, the Life Event Survey for Collegiate Athletes (LESCA), Sport Competitive Anxiety Test (SCAT), and Brief Cope were administered. At time two (T2), three months after the initial data collection, participants’ traumatic injuries were recorded. Latent profile analysis (LPA) showed that 3 profiles solution showed best fit to data. Players in profile 1 and 2 reported fewer injuries compared to players in profile 3. However, whereas individuals in profile 1 had a lower predictive risk of sustaining an injury when compared to those in profile 3, both profiles had similar anxiety levels and use of coping strategies with differing stress levels. These findings suggest that the interaction between different proposed risk factors might influence injury risk. © 2021 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Background: While the psychosocial risk factors for traumatic injuries have been comprehensively investigated, less is known about psychosocial factors predisposing athletes to overuse injuries.

Objective: The aim of this review was to systematically identify studies and synthesise data that examined psychosocial risk factors for overuse injuries in athletes.

Design: Systematic review.

Data Sources: MEDLINE, Web of Science and PsycINFO databases, supplemented by hand searching of journals and reference lists.

Eligibility Criteria for Selecting Studies: Quantitative and qualitative studies involving competitive athletes, published prior to July 2021, and reporting the relationship between psychosocial variables and overuse injury as an outcome were reviewed. This was limited to academic peer-reviewed journals in Swedish, English, German, Spanish and French. An assessment of the risk of bias was performed using modifed versions of the RoBANS and SBU Quality Assessment Scale for Qualitative Studies.

Results: Nine quantitative and fve qualitative studies evaluating 1061 athletes and 27 psychosocial factors were included for review. Intra-personal factors, inter-personal factors and sociocultural factors were found to be related to the risk of overuse injury when synthesised and reported according to a narrative synthesis approach. Importantly, these psychosocial factors, and the potential mechanisms describing how they might contribute to overuse injury development, appeared to be diferent compared with those already known for traumatic injuries.

Conclusions: There is preliminary evidence that overuse injuries are likely to partially result from complex interactions between psychosocial factors. Coaches and supporting staf are encouraged to acknowledge the similarities and diferences between traumatic and overuse injury aetiology. © 2021. The Author(s).

INTRODUCTION: Football is a popular sport among young females worldwide, but studies concerning injuries in female players are scarce compared with male players. The aim of this study is to identify risk factors for injury in adolescent female football players.

METHODS AND ANALYSIS: The Karolinska football Injury Cohort (KIC) is an ongoing longitudinal study that will include approximately 400 female football academy players 12-19 years old in Sweden. A detailed questionnaire regarding demographics, health status, lifestyle, stress, socioeconomic factors, psychosocial factors and various football-related factors are completed at baseline and after 1 year. Clinical tests measuring strength, mobility, neuromuscular control of the lower extremity, trunk and neck are carried out at baseline. Players are followed prospectively with weekly emails regarding exposure to football and other physical activity, health issues (such as stress, recovery, etc), pain, performance and injuries via the Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center Overuse Injury Questionnaire (OSTRC-O). Players who report a substantial injury in the OSTRC-O, that is, not being able to participate in football activities, or have reduced their training volume performance to a moderate or major degree, are contacted for full injury documentation. In addition to player data, academy coaches also complete a baseline questionnaire regarding coach experience and education.

ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The study was approved by the Regional Ethical Review Authority at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden (2016/1251-31/4). All participating players and their legal guardians give their written informed consent. The study will be reported in accordance with the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational studies in Epidemiology. The results will be published in peer-reviewed academic journals and disseminated to the Swedish football movement through stakeholders and media. © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.

Football is a popular sport among adolescent females. Given the rate of injuries in female footballers, identifying factors that can predict injuries are important. These injuries are often caused by complex reasons. The aim of this study was to investigate if the combination of demographic (age, number of training and match play hours/week), psychosocial (perceived stress, adaptive coping strategies) and physiological factors (functional performance) can predict a traumatic injury in adolescent female footballers. A cohort consisting of 419 female football players aged 13–16 years was established. Baseline questionnaires covered potential risk factors for sport injuries, and measurements included football-related functional performance tests. Data were collected prospectively with a weekly online questionnaire for 52 weeks covering, e.g., injuries, training, and match play hours/week. A total of 62% of the players reported at least one traumatic injury during the 52 weeks. The coping strategy “positive reframing” had the strongest association with the risk of traumatic injuries. The combination of more frequent use of the coping strategy, positive reframing, and high levels of physical performance capacity may prevent a traumatic injury in adolescent female footballers. Coaches are encouraged to adopt both physiological and psychological factors when preventing injuries in young female footballers. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Research has shown that high levels of stress and stress responsivity can increase the risk of injuries. However, most of the research that has supported this notion has focused on between-person relationships, ignoring the relationships at the within-person level. As a result, the objective of this study was to investigate if within-person changes in perceived stress symptoms over a 1-month time period could predict injury rates during the subsequent 3 months. A prospective design with two measurement points (Time 1—at the beginning of the season and Time 2—1 month into the season) was utilized. A total of 121 competitive soccer players (85 males and 36 females; M_age = 18.39, SD = 3.08) from Sweden and the United States completed the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (KPDS) and a demographic sheet at Time 1. The KPDS was also completed at Time 2, and all acute injuries that occurred during the subsequent 3-month period were recorded. A Bayesian latent change scores model was used to determine whether within-person changes in stress symptoms could predict the risk of injury. Results revealed that there was a credible positive effect of changes in stress symptoms on injury rates, indicating that an increase in reported stress symptoms was related to an increased risk for injury. This finding highlights the importance of creating caring and supportive sporting environments and relationships and teaching stress management techniques, especially during the earlier portion of competitive seasons, to possibly reduce the occurrence of injuries. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons A/S.

The chapter begins with an overview of research on psychological risk factors, “predictors”, for injury outcome focusing on competitive and elite sport populations. Based on this presentation, a summary of psychological studies with a special attention on prevention of injury outcome will be highlighted. The final part of the chapter sets the rehabilitation phase in the centre, specifically emphasising personal and situational factors influencing athletes’ injury reactions including return to sport aspects. © 2017 Springer International Publishing AG

Previous research offers evidence that psychological factors influence an injured athlete during the rehabilitation process. Our first objective was to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of the results from all published studies that examined the relationships among negative affective responses after sport injuries, rehabilitation adherence, and return to play (RTP). The second objective was to use a meta-analytic path analysis to investigate whether an indirect effect existed between negative affective responses and RTP through rehabilitation adherence. This literature review resulted in seven studies providing 14 effect sizes. The results from the meta-analysis showed that negative affective responses had a negative effect on successful RTP, whereas rehabilitation adherence had a positive effect on RTP. The results from the meta-analytic path analysis showed a weak and nonsignificant indirect effect of negative affective responses on RTP via rehabilitation adherence. These results underline the importance of providing supportive environments for injured athletes to increase the chances of successful RTP via a decrease in negative affective responses and increase in rehabilitation adherence.