Einleitung

From the moment of injury to the return to competitive-level sport, many athletes go through different phases of psychological "upsets". Leddy, Lambert & Ogles (1994) report on a study showing injured athletes immediately following physical injury to exhibit greater depression and anxiety and lower self-confidence than a control group, no significant change in this respect being recorded in a follow-up 2 months later. Research suggests, however, that some 5-10% of those long-term injured competitive athletes seeking treatment show signs of marked physical and/or psychological imbalance that strongly affected their rehabilitation and thus their return to active sport. Longitudinal studies, focused on how competitive athletes adapt psychologically to sport during and after a severe sport injury are important, since they can allow psychological risk factors to be detected early in the rehabilitation. In a study, Johnson (1997), 81 long-term injured competitive athletes were followed during and after rehabilitation. It was found that, about 30 months after the end of rehabilitation, about 8-9% of the athletes had not returned to their sport, despite a favourable physical prognosis. A multiple logistic regression analysis revealed, already on the first test occasion at the very beginning of rehabilitation, a distinct pattern or risk markers (p=.0026, correctly predicted cases, 96%). Ominous signs were the following: insufficient mental plan for the rehabilitation, a negative attitude toward rehabilitation, restricted social contact with former club mates, low hedonic tone, gender and a stress-and anxiety laden experience regarding the injury. The purpose of this study is to test the predictive validity of the inventory Questionnaie - Psychosocial Risk factors and Sport Injury (Q-PRSI) on a sample of long-term injured competitive athletes. Einleitung