Factorial validity of extended sport competitive anxiety test evaluated with young athletes

Abstract

The Sport Competitive Anxiety Test (SCAT) has been applied most widely to estimate anxiety in sport. Although the SCAT has been modified to make the instrument more appropriate for the assessment of the multidimensional competitive trait anxiety construct, the extended version (SCATe) has not been validated to date. The aim of this study was to investigate factorial validity of the SCATe, as well as the consistency of the three subscale measures within the global score. SCATe was evaluated with 1024 young competitors aged 12 to 21 years, involved in 21 sports. The Cronbach's coefficients, exploratory and confirmatory factorial analysis and the Spearman Correlation were applied. The three-factor model accounts for 34.23% of the total variance of competitive anxiety. All three dimensions revealed significant inherent eigenvalues (6.79, 1.98, and 1.49). The somatic component was 23%, while self-confidence and cognitive components were 7% and 5%, respectively. The results indicated acceptable internal consistency and factorial validity for successful evaluation of a global score for competitive trait anxiety and the three individual subscale scores: somatic, cognitive and self-confidence. The data suggest that SCATe could be applied as alternative test to SCAT, however, further improvement of the SCATe metric characteristics is recommended.

Keywords: Trait anxiety; Construct validity; Reliability; SCAT