Breaking the Cycle: How Coping and Flexibility Disrupt the Link Between Kinesiophobia and Rumination in Athletes.

Background: This study aims to examine the relationship between Kinesiophobia and Rumination in athletes, and to reveal the mediating roles of Coping Responses and Psychological Flexibility in this relationship.

Methods: Three hundred ninety licensed athletes, including 225 females and 165 males, voluntarily participated in the study. Participants were selected through simple random sampling from various sports clubs across Turkey. During the data collection, participants were contacted online. They completed the personal ınformation form, the Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia, the Sport Competition Rumination Scale, the Psychological Flexibility Scale, and the Coping Responses Inventory. IBM SPSS 26 and PROCESS Macro Model 4.0 were used for data analysis. In addition to descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, linear regression, and mediation analyses were conducted. The adequacy of the sample size was evaluated using G*Power (v 3.1). The Bootstrap method with 5000 resamples and a 95% confidence interval was applied in the mediation analysis.

Results: The study's findings indicated that kinesiophobia significantly predicted levels of rumination among athletes, and that both psychological flexibility and coping responses partially mediated this relationship. Although both variables were functional in reducing ruminative thinking, coping responses demonstrated a more potent effect. The results suggest that the tendency to avoid movement affects physical and cognitive processes.

Conclusions: It was concluded that psychological flexibility and coping responses are protective factors in reducing repetitive negative thought patterns in athletes. In this regard, it is recommended that holistic intervention programs aimed at enhancing psychological resilience be developed to support mental health and athletic performance.