Stressors, social support and psychological responses to sport injury in high- and low-performance standard participants

Objective: The purpose of the present study was to examine the main and buffering effect relationships between social support and psychological responses to sport injury with samples of high- and low-performance standard injured participants. Method: High- (N = 147) and low-performance (N = 114) standard injured participants completed measures of perceived social support, injury-related stressors and psychological responses during physiotherapy clinic visits. Results: Moderated hierarchical regression analyses revealed the following key findings: a) in the high-performance sample, there were significant (p < .05) main effects for social support in relation to psychological responses; b) in the low-performance sample, there were significant buffering effects for social support in relation to psychological responses. That is, in the low-performance sample, the detrimental relationships between stressors and psychological responses were reduced for those with high social support compared to those with low social support, but level of social support was relatively unimportant at low levels of stressors. Conclusion: These results highlight that the relationships between social support, stressors, and psychological responses to sport injury may differ, depending upon the performance standard of the athlete. The impact of social support in the injury process may therefore be more complicated than first thought, and this has implications for interventions aimed at increasing social support for injured athletes.