# School based prevention of children's sports injuries: a cluster randomized controlled trial integrating psychological skills training to reduce injury risk and improve emotional health

## TL;DR

This study shows that adding psychological skills training to sports education helps reduce injuries and improve emotional health in children.

## Contribution

The study introduces a novel cluster randomized controlled trial integrating psychological skills training into children's sports safety education.

## Key findings

- The intervention group had a 10.8% injury rate compared to 28.9% in the control group.
- Psychological training improved children's self-efficacy, concentration, and coping strategies.
- Emotional health scores like SAS and SDS were significantly lower in the intervention group.

## Abstract

Children's sports are an important way for comprehensive physical and mental development, but frequent sports injuries restrict safe participation. Traditional sports safety education neglects the impact of psychological factors such as attention, stress response, and emotional regulation on injury risk, which can easily lead to emotional distress and affect the sustainability and physical and mental health of sports. This study conducts targeted psychological skills training, which can make up for the shortcomings of traditional education, help children establish a scientific psychological regulation model, and reduce the risk of injury from the source.

This study adopted a cluster randomized controlled trial design, selecting 258 children from grades 3–6 of primary school as the research subjects. They were randomly divided into an intervention group (130 children) and a control group (128 children) according to class clusters. The control group received routine exercise safety education, while the intervention group received integrated psychological skills training on the basis of routine education. The intervention period is 12 weeks. The primary outcome measure was the incidence of sports injuries within 6 months, while secondary outcomes included the Childhood Anxiety Scale (SAS), Depression Scale (SDS), Exercise Self Efficacy Scale (SEQ-C), Exercise Concentration Scale (SMS), Coping Style Questionnaire (CSQ), and Exercise Participation Intention Score.

The incidence of sports injuries in the intervention group (10.8%) was significantly lower than that in the control group (28.9%) (P < 0.001); After intervention, the SAS and SDS scores of the intervention group were significantly lower than those of the control group, while the SEQ-C score, SMS score, positive coping style score, and exercise participation willingness score were significantly higher than those of the control group (P < 0.001).

Integrating psychological skills training can effectively reduce the risk of sports injuries by enhancing children's psychological regulation ability and concentration during exercise, while improving emotional health status, strengthening exercise self-efficacy and positive coping strategies, increasing their willingness to participate in sports, and providing a scientifically feasible optimization plan for the safety guarantee system of children's sports.