1. Psychological Antecedents to Sport Injury
Week 3: 1/19/15 – 1/23/15
PSYCHOLOGY 310:
Sport & Injury Psychology
University of Mary
Instructor:
Dr. Theresa Magelky

2. Psychological Antecedents to Sport Injury
Psychological factors that influence the onset of sport injury
Psychological factors that may predispose an individual to sport-related injury
Psychological factors that may increase sport injury occurrence
Psychological factors that may prevent injury or lessen the impact of injury (protective factors)

3. The Stress and Injury Model
Most dominant theory guiding research on psychology of sport injury and prevention
Developed by Andersen and Williams, 1988
Developed to organize research and direct future interest by explaining psychological factors underlying occurrence of sport injuries
Likelihood of injury will be influenced by athlete’s perception of stress in a given situation
Presumption of Model: An athlete’s personality, stress history, and coping resources all impact athlete’s cognitive appraisal of stress
This may either intensify or mitigate their response to stress and enhance risk of being injured

4. The Stress and Injury Model (cont.)
Cognitive appraisal process plays key role in stress reactivity
Involves balance between primary and secondary appraisals
Primary appraisal – reflects the perception of a stressor as threatening and/or harmful with important consequences
Secondary appraisal – involves degree to which individual perceives having adequate coping resources to manage demands of the stressor
Athletes who have personality that amplifies stress, history of many stressors, and few coping resources to buffer stress more likely to have cognitive appraisals of athletic situations that heighten stress response and increase risk of being injured

5. The Stress and Injury Model (cont.)
Stress & injury model includes psychological interventions to assist athletes in adapting to stress which might prevent injury occurrence
Cognitive-behavioral approach to stress management:
Thought-stopping
Cognitive restructuring
Enhance personal control over physiological/ attentional effects of stress
Relaxation
Mental rehearsal
Attention control Training

6. The Stress Response
Stress reactivity is the central link between stress and injury incidence
Stress responses may involve disruptions in athletes’ cognitive/attentional & physiological functioning
Factors contributing to poor stress response that may lead to higher risk of sport injury include:
Low perceptions of health
Slower reaction times
Peripheral narrowing

7. Antecedents of Sport Injury
Three primary factors that influence athletes’ responses to stress (injury antecedent areas):
Personality
Stress history
Coping resources
These factors reflect both risk factors (heighten reactivity to stress and sport injury risk) and resources (protective factors that buffer stress reactivity)

8. Personality Traits
Specific personality traits that enable athletes to view athletic situations as challenging rather than threatening
Results in lower stress response and, as a result, lower risk to injury
3 most-researched personality traits relating to stress reactivity and resultant injury:
Anxiety
Locus of Control
Mental & Emotional States

9. Personality Traits (cont.)
Anxiety
Most frequently studied personality variable correlated with injury onset
Specifically, competitive anxiety – an athlete’s tendency to perceive competitive situations as threatening & to respond with heightened anxiety or feelings or fear and tension
Athletes experiencing competitive anxiety might report the following symptoms:
Racing thoughts, inability to focus, sleep difficulties, loss of appetite, etc.
According to research, athletes who display increased levels of competitive anxiety are more likely to experience a sport injury

10. Personality Traits (cont.)
Locus of Control – an athlete’s perception of who or what is responsible for what happens to them
An individual’s belief regarding how much control he/she has over a situation and the resulting outcome plays a significant role in sport performance and sport injury and rehabilitation
Athletes who focus on uncontrollable factors (have an external locus of control) are more likely to be unsuccessful or suffer injury (e.g., focus on referees’ calls, opponents’ mistakes)
Athletes who see their ability as unchangeable tend to give up more easily in the face of failure.
Athletes who believe they can change and improve, and who focus on controllable performance factors (have an internal locus of control) tend to be more focused, put forth more effort, and achieve more success

11. Personality Traits (cont.)
Mental and Emotional States – associated with injury onset
Mood, anger, and Type A have been most researched
Athletes who report negative mood states (e.g., anxiety) appear to be more likely to become injured or to sustain more severe injuries
Athletes with higher levels of negative mood or overall mood disturbance (e.g., anxiety, depression) appear more likely to be injured
However, positive (desirable) mood states have also been associated with injury (e.g., energy, low anger)

12. Stress History
Of the 3 antecedents in the stress and injury model, stress history has been researched the most
Stress history related to injury involves:
Major life events – there is a clear & consistent relationship between life event stress and injury
Daily hassles (minor life events) – these occur more frequently than major events and can create demands for resources and influence reaction to stress
Prior injury history – an athlete’s injury history, and current injury status, also contribute to the stress-injury relationship
Study by van Mechelen at al. (1996) found that athletes with prior injury were more than 9 times as likely to become injured than athletes with no injury history
Prior injury history was also found to be strong predictor for multiple psychological and physical risk factors

13. Coping Resources
Coping resources include an athlete’s personal & environmental strengths and vulnerabilities in managing the demands of stress
Internal factors such as general coping behaviors
E.g., self-care, sleep, nutrition
Psychological coping or mental skills
E.g., management of thoughts, energy/emotion, attention/focus
External factors
E.g., social support
Research indicates athletes with high life stress and low social support are most vulnerable to injury
High social support found to protect athletes from injury

14. Psychological Interventions
The use of psychological interventions to prevent athletic injury
This area has received the least research attention
Psychological intervention studies have mainly focused on cognitive-behavioral techniques (CBT) of stress management
E.g., Athletes’ cognitive appraisals and stress-response symptoms
Skills training to enhance self-awareness, reduce negative effects of stress, and promote self-regulation and self-control
Research thus far provides strong support for psychological interventions for athletes to alleviate negative health-related consequences of sport participation

15. Service Delivery
In order to ensure ethical, safe, and effective services, psychological intervention should only be provided by appropriately trained professionals (as is the case for all areas of psychology)
These professionals should hold credentials from governing sport psychology organizations, state, and/or national regulatory boards for sport psychologists

16. References
Arvinen-Barrow, M., & Walker, N. (2013). The Psychology of Sport Injury and Rehabilitation (1st ed.). Routledege.
Kremer, J., Moran, A., Walker, G., & Craig. C. (2012). Key Concepts in Sport Psychology. Sage Publishing.
Murphy. S. (2005). The Sport Psych Handbook. Human Kinetics.