Beyond need satisfaction: the role of psychological need frustration in sport injury anxiety among High-Intensity Functional Training participants.

PURPOSE: This study aimed to investigate psychological need frustration as a predictor of sport injury anxiety among HIFT athletes, and to examine the roles of demographic and training-related variables in injury-related anxiety.

METHODS

A cross-sectional research design was employed. The sample consisted of 100 volunteer adult High-Intensity Functional Training participants from Türkiye (66 males, 34 females; age = 30.30 ± 6.75 years). Data were collected using the Sport Injury Anxiety Scale (SIAS) and the Basic Psychological Needs in Sport Scale (BPNSS). Independent-samples t-tests, one-way analyses of variance (ANOVA), Pearson correlation analyses, and standard multiple linear regression analyses were performed.

RESULTS

Overall sport injury anxiety was found to be below the midpoint of the scale (M = 2.23, SD = 0.59). Reinjury anxiety demonstrated the highest mean score (M = 3.02, SD = 1.09), whereas loss of social support anxiety showed the lowest mean score (M = 1.48, SD = 0.69). Correlation analyses revealed significant positive associations between sport injury anxiety and autonomy frustration (r = 0.32, p = 0.001), competence frustration (r = 0.29, p = 0.003), and relatedness frustration (r = 0.38, p < 0.001). In contrast, no significant relationships were observed between sport injury anxiety and any of the psychological need satisfaction dimensions (p > 0.05). Female participants reported significantly higher pain-related anxiety than male participants (p = 0.041, d = 0.44, women > men). Married participants demonstrated significantly lower overall injury anxiety than unmarried/widowed participants (p < 0.001, d = 0.83). Regression analyses identified age (β = -0.21, p = 0.037), sex (β = 0.26, p = 0.011), marital status (β = 0.24, p = 0.013), and relatedness frustration (β = 0.34, p = 0.017) as significant predictors of sport injury anxiety. The model explained 31.8% of the variance in sport injury anxiety (R 2 = 0.318, F(7, 92) = 6.14, p < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

These findings extend SDT to the sport injury anxiety domain by demonstrating that need frustration, particularly relatedness frustration, constitutes a significant and independent psychological risk factor for injury-related concerns in HIFT participants.