Development of the psychological skills inventory for Chinese athletes

• Main Author: Yang, Xiaochun
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/6252

An inventory for testing the psychological skills of Chinese Athletes was developed based on a two-order structure of both Howe's (1993), and Hardy and Jones' (1994) conceptualizations. This project consisted of two phases. In Study I the original version of the 47-item Psychological Skills Inventory for Chinese Athletes (PSICA) was administrated to 305 subjects ranging from college level to international level athletes. The PSICA contains five sport specific subscales: Anxiety Control, Concentration, Confidence, Mental Preparation, and Motivation. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) revealed some problems with the original 47-item PSICA, but a modified 23-item scale demonstrated a good factorial validity. In Study II the revised 23-item PSICA was administrated to 713 subjects ranging from college level to international level athletes. Cross validation test revealed some problems with the model, and /or the inventory. The overall fit indices, with exception of the RMSEA for the female subsample, when analyzed using weighted least square (WLS) procedure, indicated an adequate but not good fit of the five-factor model. Convergent and discriminant validity test, and the test-retest reliability results indicated that the PSICA is psychometrically strong in these aspects. The findings suggest that the PSICA has potential as a valid psychological scale.