Behaving Differently! Why Don’t we Consider Different Research Questions to Integrate Behavioural Sciences into Sports Injury Prevention Research? A Methodological Rationale

The claim that sports-related injuries can be prevented faces almost no objection. However, we continue struggling to reproduce preventive effects observed in efficacy trials while implementing preventive measures in sports settings. The artificial conditions created in trials allow researchers to control individual behaviour and tackle the influence of contextual factors to maximise the effect sizes. Still, the preventive effect is conditioned to change behaviour in naturalistic conditions. Athletes should adopt and sustain behaviours of interest; otherwise, the preventive effect will be diluted. Previous studies have highlighted the importance of considering behaviour in sports injury prevention research, but guidance on better integrating behavioural sciences into the field still needs to be provided. The present article proposes a framework outlining different types of evidence needed to foster the integration of behavioural sciences into sports injury prevention. After a brief introduction, we describe the framework and present examples of research questions covered by their component paths. Finally, we present a hypothetical application of the scheme using the adoption of FIFA 11 + as the preventive behaviour of interest.