Development and Validation of a Multidimensional Measure of Sport-Specific Psychological Skills: The Athletic Coping Skills Inventory-28

Abstract

Confirmatory factor analysis was used as the basis for a new form of the Athletic Coping Skills Inventory (ACSI). The ACSI-28 contains seven sport-specific subscales: Coping With Adversity, Peaking Under Pressure, Goal Setting/Mental Preparation, Concentration, Freedom From Worry, Confidence and Achievement Motivation, and Coachability. The scales can be summed to yield a Personal Coping Resources score, which is assumed to reflect a multifaceted psychological skills construct. Confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated the factorial validity of the ACSI-28, as the seven subscales conform well to the underlying factor structure for both male and female athletes. Psychometric characteristics are described, and preliminary evidence for construct and predictive validity is presented.

Mind Over Matter: The Development of the Mental Toughness Scale (MTS)

“…The ACSI (Smith, Schutz, Smoll, & Ptacek, 1995) measures coping with adversity, peaking under pressure, goal setting/mental preparation, concentration, freedom from worry, confidence and achievement motivation, and the ability to be coached. The PSIS-5 (Mahoney, Gabriel & Perkins, 1987) is a 45-item measure that assesses anxiety control, concentration, confidence, mental preparation, motivation and team focus.…”

Confirmatory factor analysis of the Test of Performance Strategies (TOPS) among adolescent athletes

“…Assessment of psychological skills is often recognised as an integral part of the work of an applied sport psychologist (see Chartrand et al, 1992;White, 1993;Smith et al, 1995;Taylor, 1995;Hardy et al, 1996;Thomas et al, 1999). One method of measuring the mental skills of athletes is by using psychological questionnaires or inventories, but the utility of such instruments depends fundamentally upon their psychometric properties.…”

Psychological and Anthropometric Characteristics of a Hungarian Elite Football Academy’s Players

“…ACSI-28 is a 28-item test that measures coping with adversity, peaking under pressure, goal setting/mental preparation, concentration, freedom from worry, confidence, and achievement motivation, as well as coachability (Smith et al 1995). The 28-item ACSI-28 has a 1-4 numerical scale ("never," "seldom," "often," "always") and an appropriate level of internal reliability.…”