Psychological Factors in the Injury-Occurrence Process among College Athletes

This study examined associations among psychological factors and subsequent sports-related injury occurrence in college athletes.Participants included 218 male athletes from individual-sport teams at College A. Psychological competitive abilities (DIPCA.3), sport-related stressors, and mental health (SMHAT-1) were assessed at baseline, and injury occurrence was monitored for approximately three months.Logistic regression showed that higher psychological distress was associated with greater odds of injury (OR = 1.08, p < .01) .Path analysis among continuous variables indicated that psychological skills, particularly mental stability/ concentration and cooperativeness were associated with fewer stressors (e.g., interpersonal and intrapersonal/social-change stressors) , which in turn related to lower psychological distress (R 2 = .32) .These findings suggest that strengthening psychological skills and managing stressors may improve mental health in college athletes and may help prevent sports-related injuries.