Exploring the impact of athletic identity on gender role conflict and athlete injury fear avoidance in English professional academy football players.

Sport and football encourage a commitment to the athletic role and masculine socialization. When athletes get injured the ability to fulfil an athletic and masculine identity is threatened and they may experience injury-related fear-avoidance behaviours as part of a negative injury appraisal. The aim of the study was to explore whether higher athletic identity was associated with higher gender role conflict and injury fear-avoidance. Seventy-two professional English footballers completed an Athletic Identity Measurement Scale (AIMS), Gender Role Conflict Scale (GRCS), and Athlete Fear Avoidance Questionnaire (AFAQ) based on historical injuries. Correlational analyses were conducted for all variables and a one-way ANOVA was used to compare high, moderate, and low athletic identity. Results showed that AIMS was positive correlated with two GRCS subscales (success, power, and competition, and restricted affectionate behaviour between men). Additionally, the current study showed that high and moderate levels of athletic identity had significantly higher levels of total GRCS than those with low athletic identity. No significant results were found for AIMS and AFAQ. Results suggest that academy footballers with higher athletic identities may be more susceptible to masculine role conflicts, specifically, success, power, and competition, and restrictive affectionate behaviour between men. The current study informs sport and health professionals of the need to monitor athletic identity and masculine conformity in their academy level footballers to minimise gender-role conflict and potential maladaptive rehabilitation responses when their identities are threatened.