Psychometric Properties of the Brazilian Version of the Sport Anxiety Scale-2

Abstract

Competitive anxiety (CA) is an emotional reaction manifested at a somatic and/or cognitive level that regularly appears before or during sports competitions and can significantly impact an athlete's performance. Given the scarcity of validated instruments available for evaluating the competitive-anxiety trait in the Brazilian context, this study aimed to investigate the psychometric properties of the Sport Anxiety Scale-2 (SAS-2). The study sample was composed of 238 professional and amateur athletes aged 13 years or older who practice different sports modalities. The results of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) revealed adequate fit indices of the original three-factor theoretical model of the SAS-2 after including a correlation between the errors for items 6 and 12 of the somatic anxiety subscale (CFI = 0.97, TLI = 0.96, RMSEA = 0.08, WRMR = 1.04). For convergent and divergent validity, the SAS-2 subscales exhibited a positive and strong correlations with the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2R (CSAI-2R; r = 0.52-0.82), weak to moderate correlations with the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory-only the trait scale (STAI-T; r = 0.49-0.59), weak correlations with the Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN; r = 0.29-0.41) and weak to moderate correlations with the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9; r = 0.49-0.56). The SAS-2 was also able to discriminate among participants with and without social anxiety, general trait anxiety and depressive symptoms, thus confirming its discriminant validity. According to ROC curve analysis, the cutoff point at a score of 29 indicated the optimal balance of sensitivity (0.74) and specificity (0.82). The internal consistency (α = 0.73-0.86) and the test-retest reliability (ICC = 0.73-0.80) were satisfactory. These results indicated that the Brazilian version of the SAS-2 exhibited satisfactory psychometric performance and could be used in the Brazilian context.

Psychometric Properties at Indonesian Version of the Sport Anxiety Scale-2: Testing on Elite Athletes of Papua, Indonesia

“…Furthermore, examining the dimensions with scores on the first version of the SAS found a coefficient value of .69 to .90 with a significance p-value ≤ .01. Therefore, the results of this study reinforce the results of previous which examined all three dimensions of anxiety in SAS [30], [31], [37].…”

“…These test results align with the original SAS-2 version, which shows the fit model on several parameters used: chi-square, RMSEA, CFI, NNFI, and RMSEA 90% Cls [31]. Furthermore, this study was in line with Silva-Rocha and Osório [28] and Silva-Rocha et al, [37]. It stated that the SAS-2 property in the Brazilian language had a fit model based on parameters CFI, TLI, RMSEA, and WRMR.…”

“…Testing on Elite Athletes of Papua, Indonesia finding thirteen items having a loading value of ≥.70 and seven items having a loading value of ≥.50 [37].…”

“…The test was carried out by Smith et al [30] and Smith et al, [31] while developing and revising SAS. Also, it was carried out by Silva-Rocha et al [37] when testing SAS-2 properties on Brazilians. Secondly, the research subjects were used only to represent the characteristics of elite Indonesian Papuan athletes and not other characteristics.…”

What Lies Beneath: Exploring Different Depressive Symptoms Across Selected Risk Factors in Icelandic Team Sport Athletes

“…One of the aims of this study was, therefore, to explore sum scores from the perspective of DSM criteria. Several studies in athletes have utilized PHQ-9 scores ≥10 as a cutoff for identifying clinically relevant cases and reporting prevalence rates (Bell et al, 2016;Du Preez et al, 2017;McGuire, Ingram, Sachs, & Tierney, 2017;Silva-Rocha, de Sousa, & Osório, 2019;Tahtinen et al, 2020;Tahtinen & Kristjansdottir, 2019). We, however, speculated that when applying this cutoff, athletes could attain clinically significant scores without exhibiting the core symptoms of depression (i.e., lack of interest and depressed mood).…”