A validity and reliability study for the perceived belonging in sport scale
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine the validity and the reliability of The Perceived Belonging in Sport Scale developed by Justine amongst Turkish university student athletes. The sampling of the study consisted of a total of 437 athletes, 207 (47.4%) of whom were female and 230 (52.6%) of whom were male. Mean age of the athletes was 17.87 ± 3.47 years. The Perceived Belonging in Sport Scale consisting of 18 items was used for data collection. 5 point Likert-type scale (1 = not at all true for me; 5 = completely true for me) was used to evaluate the items. For statistical analysis of the data, exploratory factor analysis was used to determine sub-factors of the scale. KMO and Barlett tests were conducted to measure the applicability of the exploratory factor analysis. To test the internal consistency of the scale, Cronbach's alpha internal consistency test was conducted on the sub-dimensions determined by exploratory factor analysis and on the total of the scale. Of the 18 items of the original scale, 8 were grouped under two sub-factors whose Eigen values were greater than 1. The total variance explained by these two sub-factors was 60.26%. The first sub-factor consisted of. 1., 2, 5. and 8. items; while the second sub-factor consisted of 12., 15., 16., and 18. items. Cronbach's alpha score was 0.77 for the first sub-factor and 0.76 for the second sub-factor. Cronbach's alpha score for the total scale was found to be 0.81. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed on the items that were obtained from the exploratory factor analysis. According to this analysis, the structural reliability for the "identification with team" sub-dimension was found to be 0.76, and the structural reliability for "being a part of team" sub-dimension was found to be 0.78. In conclusion, the analysis indicated that The Perceived Belonging in Sport Scale was a valid and reliable tool for measuring and evaluating Turkish university student athletes' belongingness levels in the sports environment.
