Does Low Self-Efficacy Predict Injury?

The New York Times led me to an interesting study that manages to combine three of my biggest interests: physical therapy/physical health, psychology and the circus (I learned trapeze and unicycling at summer camp).

Using super athletes who were former gymnasts, trampoline artists, swimmer or divers currently enrolled in a Cirque du Soleil training program, researchers studied the contributing factors to their injuries. The 47 athletes trained intensely for “eight and a half hours a day, five days a week, for 16 weeks,” and about half endured injuries serious enough to warrant visits to an on-site trainer.

The biggest predictor of those who injured themselves turned out to be having low self-efficacy. The Times defined this as “a kind of enhanced self-confidence, the feeling that you are easily capable of performing the task ahead.”

Having low confidence was more highly linked to injury than interest, injury, emotional exhaustion, or fatigue. The researchers suggested that having low focus took away from the athlete’s focus, since some of their attention was being diverted to their fears.

Interestingly, their confidence levels didn’t always match their skill levels.

I’m wondering how much of a correlation PT’s have observed between low self-efficacy and injuries. There’s a big difference between not thinking you’re a good runner and doubting your flying trapeze skills. If you think you’re a bad runner, it could mean that you’re scared of being slow, and you could sprain an ankle or pull a muscle; if you think you’re a poor trapeze artist, it could mean falling 35 feet in the air, and suffering great injury or even death.

I would think that fear would take up much more focus for athletes in more extreme sports such as circus arts or horseback riding than it would for those in more traditional sports such as running or basketball.

What do you think? Is low self-efficacy a good predictor of injury?

The picture is of me at The Trapeze School New York.