Athletic trainer strategies for nurturing athletes’ basic psychological needs during sport injury rehabilitation

<b>Objective:</b> To qualitatively explore athletic trainers' (ATs') perceptions of how they support injured college athletes' basic psychological needs of competence, autonomy, and relatedness. <b>Participants and methods:</b> Thirteen U.S. National Collegiate Athletic Association ATs completed semi-structured interviews. Four researchers conducted a deductive thematic analysis. Techniques (audit trail, bracketing of biases, and member checking) were utilized to enhance the study's rigor. <b>Results:</b> Three themes with eight sub-themes representing need-supporting strategies were constructed: (a) ATs attempted to foster injured athletes' perceived relatedness by cultivating trusting connections; (b) ATs attempted to foster injured athletes' perceived competence by engendering mastery during rehabilitation; and (c) ATs attempted to foster injured athletes' perceived autonomy by promoting ownership of their rehabilitation. <b>Conclusions:</b> Multiple strategies described by ATs were aligned with need-satisfying approaches discussed by athletes in previous research. The present study offers rich descriptions of techniques for facilitating optimal motivation in injured college athletes for ATs to consider.