Psycho-Social Factors Promoting Psychological Acceptance of Athletic Injuries

[Aim] Psychological acceptance of athletic injury is characterized by 2 perspectives: Self-Motivation (SM) and Focus on the Present (FP). Factors related to developing psychological acceptance of athletic injury in athletes are in the process of being clarified. The purpose of this study was to develop a scale based on 3 perspectives: Emotional Stability (ES), Sense of Unity with the Team (SUT), and Temporal Perspective (TP), and to examine the relationship between these psychosocial variables and psychological acceptance of athletic injury. [Methodology] Participants were student-athletes (N = 133) that had experienced injury-rehabilitation after entering university. They were asked to fill out an originally developed questionnaire that consisted of the following scales: the Psycho-Social Factors Scale (PSF-S) based on three perspectives extracted from interviews. Participants also completed the Athletic Injury Psychological Acceptance Scale (AIPA-S). [Results] Factor analysis using the principal factor method and Promax rotation conducted on the 22 items of the PSF-S extracted four factors: ES: alpha= 0.854, Self-competence in the team (SCT): alpha= 0.837, TP: alpha= 0.847, and Communication with Teammates (CT): alpha = 0.822. Results of conducting a similar factor analysis on the AIPA-S extracted the two factors: SM: alpha= 890 and FP: alpha=. 673. Next, the influence of the four PSF-S subscale scores on the two AIPA-S subscale scores was investigated by conducting covariance structure analysis. Results of examining the model in relation to the path coefficient between significance variables (p<. 05) indicated the influence of SM in the following order: TP (0.50), ES (0.40), and SCT (0.11). Moreover, the influence was FP was identified in the following order: ES (0.56), CT (0.20), and TP (0.14). The model also had a high index of fit (chi(2)= 1.82, df= 3, n. s.; GFI=. 995; AGFI=. 968; RMSEA=. 000). [Conclusion] It is important to constantly monitoring the temporal perspective and emotional recovery process of injured athletes.