INTRODUCTION: The personality of an individual is the result of a complex network of influences of various independent factors such as biological and psychological constitution, beyond the influences of social, environmental and cultural aspects where he/she live. It is the integration of these parts that when interacting, make the whole. OBJECTIVE: To verify whether there is a cause-effect relationship among personality traits, gender and injury in sports. METHOD: The sample consisted of 60 athletes with mean age of 15.6 (SD = 1.5) years old, being 35 male athletes and 25 female athletes from the children and youth category, participating in field tennis tournaments of the Federation of Santa Catarina and Paraná. Data were collected with the application of the Factor Personality Inventory - FPI. MANOVA and ANOVA at a level of p < 0.05 were used for data processing. RESULTS: Were significant to the variable damage with aggression (p = 0.01) and heterosexuality (p = 0.00). Concerning gender, there were significant differences with intraception (p = 0.02); succorance (p = 0.02), dominance (p = 0.004), autonomy (p = 0.03) and heterosexuality (p = 0.00). CONCLUSION: That aggressiveness is an important personality trait to be considered to control, prevent and reduce the incidence of injuries in tennis athletes.
sports; psychophysiology; tennis players
