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.