Not All Injuries Are the Same: Different Patterns in Sports Injuries and Their Psychosocial Correlates

Abstract

Sports injuries are ubiquitous and can have far-reaching consequences for athletes (e.g., health, performance). Previous studies have examined various psychosocial influencing factors (e.g., stress), but have mostly focused on only one or two injury characteristics (e.g., frequency), neglecting the broader injury pattern. Thus, the present study aimed to obtain a more differentiated picture of potentially different injury patterns and related profiles of psychosocial factors. We investigated a sample of 213 athletes from a cross-sectional online study. Current injury status, frequency, severity, chronicity, medical treatment, and rehabilitation measures were subjected to cluster analysis indicating a 3-cluster solution with predominantly chronically injured athletes (n = 54), athletes not seeking treatment (n = 62), and athletes utilizing medical treatment and rehabilitation (n = 97). Building on the Model of Stress and Athletic Injury, we subsequently conducted three multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVAs) to examine whether the obtained clusters differed in terms of personality factors (e.g., athletic identity), history of stressors (e.g., life events), and coping resources (e.g., self-compassion). We observed significant differences in all three categories of psychosocial variables implying different intervention possibilities for different injury patterns in the future.

Keywords

• cluster analysis
• model of stress and athletic injury
• history of stressors
• personality
• coping resources
• sense of coherence