Psychological Predictors of Injuries in Team Sports - Prof Podlog

Invited Session at ECSS MetropolisRuhr 2017 "Achieving Top Performance and Injury Prevention in Football: From Science to Practice - Sponsored by Aspetar "
Psychological Predictors of Injuries in Team Sports
Podlog, L.
University of Utah
Over the past 20 years empirical evidence has mounted demonstrating the link between psychological factors and injury risk. The aim of this presentation is to: 1. highlight key assumptions of the Williams and Andersen (1998) Stress-Injury Model which has guided the bulk of empirical enquiry; 2. discuss findings from original research testing assumptions of the Stress-Injury Model; and 3. overview psychological interventions aimed at injury reduction. According to the Stress-Injury Model, injury vulnerability is contingent upon the extent to which an athlete experiences a stress response when entering into a potentially stressful situation (e.g., a demanding competition or team selection). The stress response is comprised of an individual’s cognitive appraisal of a potentially stressful athletic situation and the attentional and physiological aspects of stress. Debilitating attentional (distraction, peripheral narrowing) and physiological changes (muscle tension, fatigue, reduced timing and coordination) are proposed to occur when an athlete appraises an athletic situation as threatening (Williams & Andersen, 1998). Three broad categories of variables − personality traits, history of stressors, and coping resources − are also suggested to influence the strength of the stress response and the
subsequent likelihood of injury. Empirical work has consistently supported assumptions espoused in the Stress-Injury Model. A
Meta-analysis by Ivarsson and colleagues (2016) demonstrated that the stress response (r = 0.27, 80 % CI [0.20, 0.37]) was the
strongest predictor of injury. Specifically, under stressful conditions, athletes may experience a narrowing of their peripheral vision which inhibits their ability to process environmental cues, and which increase their risk of acute injury. Furthermore, personality traits (high trait anxiety), a history of life stressors (high life stress, previous injury), and poor coping resources (low social support) have been linked with increased injury risk (Podlog & Heil, 2012). Cognitive behavioral interventions focused on stress management and relaxation techniques have demonstrated a large effect on reducing the number of injuries among athletes. Tranaeus et al. (2015), showed a total Hedges’ g effect size of 0.82 (P less than .001), 95% CI (0.55-1.11), suggesting a substantial impact. Illustrating the considerable influence of psychological interventions on injury reduction, Johnson et al (2005), experimentally demonstrated that a stress reduction training program significantly reduced injuries in treatment group athletes (three injuries; 0.22 per athlete) compared to controls (21 injuries; 1.31 per athlete). In sum, the Stress-Injury Model appears to be a valuable framework for examining injury antecedents for acute sport injury. Furthermore, psychological factors - in particular the stress response - appear to increase the risk of acute injury. Finally, psychological interventions have shown promise in reducing the stress response and subsequent likelihood of
injury.