Psychometric Properties of the Russian Version of the "Sports Anxiety Scale"

Background. Anxiety is one of the main factors that have a negative impact on competitive results in athletes. The specifics of sports activities require to apply diagnostic methods that, on the one hand, are compact, and on the other hand, provide high psychometric indicators in assessing psychological characteristics, including anxiety. In this regard, the development of a modern and reliable method for testing sports anxiety seems necessary and relevant.

Objective. The aim is to test of the questionnaire "Sports Anxiety Scale" on a Russian-speaking audience of athletes of various sports and age categories.

Study Participants. The study involved 297 athletes, including 188 men and 109 women, age ranging from 18 to 63 years (M = 23 years, SD = 5.19).

Methods. The research had a survey design. The following questionnaires were used: Sport Anxiety Scale, A. Beck Anxiety Scale, W. Zung Self-Rating Anxiety Scale, Anxiety Scale from the DASS-21 questionnaire, a short version of the Dark Triad questionnaire. To process quantitative data, we used confirmatory factor analysis, correlation analysis and Cronbach's α coefficient.

Results. The adaptation results confirmed the factorial validity, internal reliability, convergent and divergent validity of the Russian version of the "Sports Anxiety Scale". The Scale has a three-factor structure and consists of the following subscales: "Cognitive Anxiety", "Physiological Anxiety", "Concentration Difficulties". The Sports Anxiety Scale is reliable due to the high α-Cronbach coefficient (α = 0.84).

Conclusions. As a result of testing the "Sports Anxiety Scale" on a sample of athletes of various sports, high structural validity and internal reliability of the method were demonstrated. In this regard, the "Sports Anxiety Scale" can be used for practical purposes to solve diagnostic and psychotherapeutic tasks in professional sports.

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