The Relationship of Personality Characteristics, Life Stress, and Coping Resources to Athletic Injury

In 1988, Andersen and Williams proposed a model to explain the stress-injury relationship. The present study tested portions of this framework by investigating frequency and severity of injury occurrence in track and field athletes from four NCAA Division I and II universities. Personality characteristics (locus of control and sport competition trait anxiety), history of stressors (life stress, daily hassles, and past injury), and moderating variables (coping resources and social support) were assessed before the season began. Discriminant analyses indicated that four variables (coping resources, negative life stress, social support, and competitive anxiety) differentiated the severity groups. For injury frequency, coping resources and positive life stress differentiated the groups.