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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Sport Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1561432
This article is part of the Research Topic Mental Health in Recreational and Elite Sports View all 4 articles
A Perfectionism, mental health and vulnerability to injury in triathletes
Provisionally accepted
Laura Gil-Caselles 1
ROBERTO RUIZ BARQUÍN 2
José María Gimenez-Egido 3
ALEJO GARCÍA-NAVEIRA 4
Aurelio Olmedilla 1*- 1 University of Murcia, Murcia, Murcia, Spain
- 2 Department of Didactics and Theory of Education, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Autonomous University of Madrid, Madrid, Madrid, Spain
- 3 University of Alicante, Alicante, Valencian Community, Spain
- 4 Universidad Villanueva, Madrid, Spain
Background: Triathlon is a highly demanding and continuously growing sport in continuous growth. Due to its complexity, it often exposes the triathlete to a mental and physical load that is difficult to manage and exposes the athlete to sporting injury. Many triathletes are increasingly developing problems related to mental health and because of this, a greater vulnerability to suffer a sports injury is being observed. Methods: The study sample included 172 triathletes (66.27% men, 33.72% women) categorized as Amateur, Youth, or Elite. Mean age: Amateur 40.19 ± 8.35, Youth 19.50 ± 2.63, Elite 30.38 ± 8.77. Weekly training: Amateur 5.63 ± 1.07h, Youth 5.52 ± 1.28h, Elite 6.58 ± 0.67h. Daily training: Amateur 2.16 ± 1.66h, Youth 2.38 ± 2.12h, Elite 3.02 ± 2.00h. Data collection involved administering a questionnaire assessing personal and sports-related variables, injury history, and mental health indicators. The psychological assessment included the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (MPS), the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scales (DASS-21), and the Profile of Mood States (POMS). The study design is descriptive-cross-sectional and has a retrospective character.Results: Significant positive correlations were found between TNL and TGSP across participants level, with the strongest correlation observed among youth athletes. Maladaptive perfectionism exhibited a weak negative correlation with TGSP in amateur athletes. Additionally, depression and stress were positively associated with TNL and TGSP, particularly in elite and youth athletes. Emotional state analysis showed that tension and depression were positively correlated with TNL and TGSP, whereas vigor was negatively correlated in elite athletes. Conclusions: These findings suggest a significant relationship between mental health and sports injuries, indicating that psychological distress not only contributes to injury risk but may also prolong recovery time in triathletes.
Keywords: Mental Health, triathlon, perfectionism, injuries, moods
Received: 15 Jan 2025; Accepted: 02 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Gil-Caselles, RUIZ BARQUÍN, Gimenez-Egido, GARCÍA-NAVEIRA and Olmedilla. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Aurelio Olmedilla, University of Murcia, Murcia, 30003, Murcia, Spain
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