Sport injury prediction research has traditionally focused on physiological and physical factors. Nevertheless, during the last 30 years there has been increased interest in psychosocial factors related to sport injuries. The most cited theoretical model developed to explain psychosocial variables’ influences on injury risk is the model of stress and athletic injury (Williams & Andersen, 1998). The model, suggests that personality (e.g., anxiety, hardiness), history of stressors (e.g., life event stress, daily hassles), and coping (e.g., social support resources) will influence athletes’ stress responses (e.g., physiological, attentional changes) that, in turn, are related to injury risk. The aim of the study was to examine the past research on the relationships of the psychosocial variables in the model (i.e., personality, history of stressors, coping, stress responses) on sport injury rates. The literature review resulted in 47 published studies and 180 effect sizes. The results showed that stress responses (r = .22, 80% CI = .14 - .30) had the strongest associations with injury rates. Moreover, history of stressors (r = .12, 80% CI = .11 - .13) and coping (r = -.05, 80% CI = -.03 - -.08) had smaller relationships with injury rates. Finally, the associations of positive (r = .01, 80% CI = -.03 - .04), as well as negative (r = .01, 80% CI = -.01-.03) personality variables on injury rates was marginal. The results support the model’s suggestion that stress responses have a direct relationship with injury, whereas other variables potentially have indirect relationships with injury rates. In line with these findings it is suggested that intervention programs should focus on helping athletes decrease the magnitude of their stress responses. © 2015 University of Bern, Institut of Sport Science
Bern: University of Bern , 2015. p. 173-174
14th European Congress of Sport Psychology, FEPSAC 2015, Bern, Switzerland, July 14-19th, 2015