Development and validation of the Significant Others' Goal-Involving Roles in Sport Questionnaire.

Abstract

Three studies were conducted to develop and validate a French questionnaire measuring athletes' perceptions of the task- and ego-involving roles of significant others (such as coaches, parents, and peers). In Study 1, a preliminary version was constructed by creating or selecting and adapting 30 items from various existing questionnaire which refer to different significant others. In Study 2, exploratory factor analyses with 210 athletes (M age=17.2) suggested the existence of six scales (PLC: Promotion of Learning by the Coach, PLP: Promotion of Learning by Parents, PLA: Pursuit of Learning by Athletes, PCC: Promotion of Comparison by the Coach, PCP: Promotion of Comparison by Parents, PCA: Pursuit of Comparison by Athletes) with satisfactory internal consistencies, except for the PCP scale. In Study 3, confirmatory factor analyses with 285 athletes (M age=16.9) supported the preliminary six-factor structure of the instrument as well as a hierarchical structure in which the six factors were distributed into two higher-order factors (TIR: Task-Involving Roles and EIR: Ego-Involving Roles). The theoretical validity of the questionnaire was evidenced by positive correlations between 'learning' scales (PLC, PLP, PLA) and task orientation, and between 'comparison' scales (PCC, PCP, PCA) and ego orientation. The test-retest reliability was good over a three-week period and was moderate over a three-month period.