The Primary Factor of Perceived Risk of Injury and its Effects on Performance

Abstract

Researchers have examined three psychological factors that impair the performance of athletes that have suffered an injury: (a) anxiety from being injured, (b) confidence in avoiding another injury and (c) perceived probability of an injury occurring. The participants in the proposed study will be 150 male and female athletes from three sports: soccer, hockey and tennis. The proposed study will investigate the relationships among these three factors to assess whether they should be regarded as separate factors or as a single underlying factor. It will also assess the relationship between previous injuries and these three factors. Finally the study will test for gender differences, sport type and severity of injury amongst the factors. The experimenter's findings will determine whether the perceived risk of an injury should be conceptualized as a single variable or having three components.