ABSTRACT
Participation in competitive sports is associated with high physiological, biomechanical and psychological demands. Difficulties in coping with these types of demand are related to increased risks of becoming injured. Sport injuries are ubiquitous and represent substantial economic, health, personal and community costs. In Europe approximately 4.5 million athletes are annually treated for sport injuries. Severe sport injuries are related to negative emotional responses, such as sadness, anger and depression, and decreased psychological and physiological well-being. Moreover, recent research has conceptualized some sport injuries as career-changing events that can have substantial impact on athletes' careers and trajectories. With the high rates of injury within sport, together with the negative consequences that may follow, it seems warranted, as a first step, to identify psychosocial risk factors that might increase the risk of becoming injured, but also to suggest applied strategies to decrease injury risk in sport. This chapter will (1) present some models focusing on psychological risk factors in sports injury, (2) review some of the more characteristic psychosocial risk factors for sport injury, (3) provide applied recommendations and future research directions and (4) present an applied case study.
