Psychological Predictors of Injury in Collegiate Cheerleaders
Abstract
According to the revised stress-injury model (Williams & Andersen, 1998), greater life stress predicts greater vulnerability to athletic injury, with this relationship being strongest among athletes exhibiting competitive anxiety, less social support, and non-adaptive coping skills. This study tested the validity of this model among collegiate cheerleaders, an injury-prone athlete group. Ninety-two collegiate cheerleaders recorded instances of injury over 12 weeks. Measures of life stress, competitive anxiety, coping style, social support, and previous injury were obtained. Heightened negative life stress did not coincide with greater injury. A positive stress-injury relationship was observed among cheerleaders reporting high avoidance coping. A negative stress-injury relationship was present among cheerleaders reporting more previous injuries and lower avoidance coping. Worry, social support, concentration disruption, and problem coping demonstrated null moderating effects. Results for somatic anxiety were inconclusive. Future research should include larger samples to better study the conjunctive effects of moderators on the stress-injury relationship.