Sports & Exercise Research Volume 25 Number 3
Author：Ji-Heng Juang; Ya-Ting Juang; Chung-Ju Huang
Period/Date/Page：Vol. 25 No. 3 (2023 / 09 / 30) ， P283 - 295
DOI：10.5297/ser.202309_25(3).0003
Social Support and Competitive Stress in Injured Athletes: The Roles of Rehabilitation Self-Efficacy and Injury Severity
Abstract：Social support has been shown to contribute to the rehabilitation process of injured athletes, but its relationship with perceived competitive stress during injury and the underlying mechanisms involved are less discussed. This study investigated three related issues: the relationship between social support and competitive stress in injured athletes, the mediating effect of rehabilitation self-efficacy on this relationship, and finally the moderating effect of injury severity on the relationship between social support and rehabilitation self-efficacy. Participants were 196 injured college athletes (116 males and 80 females, mean age = 20.03 years). Questionnaires were employed to collect data on injury status, social support gained during the recovery process, self-efficacy toward rehabilitation programs, and the perception of competitive stress. Results indicated that: Social support negatively correlates with the coach relationship stress and training adaptation stress of injured athletes. In our data, family, friends, athletic trainers, and coaches were the sources of support during the injury period. When injured athletes perceive greater social support, their rehabilitation self-efficacy increases and the perception of stress from sports injury and training adaptation decreases. Therefore, self-efficacy could play a mediating role in the relationship between social support and competitive stress. The perceived injury severity and duration of injury in days did not moderate the relationship between social support and self-efficacy. In conclusion, the findings reveal that social support can alleviate competition-related life stress in injured athletes, and rehabilitation self-efficacy can explain the mechanism. (Full text)
