Sport perfectionism and risk factors of sport injury rehabilitation overadherence

Abstract

Rehabilitation overadherence is a form of nonadherence in which individuals exceed practitioners’ guidelines regarding the rehabilitation of their injury, resulting in enhanced risk for re-injury and prolonged recovery (Granquist, Podlog, Engel, & Newland, 2014). Overadherence is common among overly-motivated injured athletes with intense personalities (Niven, 2007). This suggests that perfectionism may be a factor that puts injured athletes at a greater risk of rehabilitation overadherence. This study utilized the 2 × 2 model of perfectionism (Gaudreau & Thomspon, 2010) to investigate this claim. Injured athletes (N = 82; Mage = 27.45 years, SD = 10.88) currently undergoing supervised rehabilitation completed measures of two perfectionism dimensions (personal standards and evaluative concerns) and four overadherence risk factors (Effortful Healing, Expedited Rehabilitation, Inclinations to Overadhere, and Normalization of pain). A series of multiple regression analyses tested whether the perfectionism dimensions interacted to predict each overadherence risk factor. No significant effects were found for Effortful Healing and Expedited Rehabilitation. A significant main effect (b = 0.17) indicated that higher levels of evaluative concerns predicted greater Inclinations to Overadhere. A significant interaction effect (b = -0.07) identified a similar relationship between evaluative concerns and Normalization of Pain, but specified that this relationship was greatest when personal standards were low. Findings are interpreted in line with the 2 × 2 model’s hypotheses and identified initial evidence of the associations between perfectionism and sport injury rehabilitation overadherence. The discussion speculates as to why relationships were evident for some overadherence risk factors, but not others, elaborates on the role of evaluative concerns perfectionism in overadherence, and suggests practical implications for practitioners.