Reproducibility of the brief religious coping inventory with African athletes’ sample using ordinal factor analytical approach

Abstract

BackgroundPrevious studies have revealed that religious coping strategy is common among athletes due to the stressful experiences before and during competitions as part of the mental preparations they go through, the uncertainty of sporting outcomes, and other organizational issues they encounter. This research assessed the reproducibility of the Brief Religious Coping (RCOPE) instrument in an African setting using athletes’ samples from different countries. Particularly, the research sought to assess the (1) factor structure of Brief RCOPE with an African sample, (2) construct validity of the RCOPE measure, and (3) measurement invariance of the RCOPE instrument based on gender and nationality.MethodsThe study surveyed a convenient sample of 300 athletes, including 164 male and 136 female athletes, from 3 African countries (Benin, Ghana, and Nigeria) who participated in the 2018 West African University Games. The Brief RCOPE instrument was administered to the athletes for validation purposes before the competition. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted using the ordinal factor analytic approach.ResultsThis validation study confirmed the two-factor dimension (positive and negative religious coping) of the Brief RCOPE measure. Further, all items for each of the dimensions of the inventory contributed significantly to the measure of the Brief RCOPE domains. The positive and negative religious coping dimensions contributed more than half of the variance of their respective indicators. Measurement invariance across gender and nationality was confirmed.ConclusionSufficient evidence was gathered to support the interpretation and use of the Brief RCOPE measure. Coaches and sports psychologists could adopt the Brief RCOPE measure to understand the mental or thought patterns of religious athletes based on existential concerns or stress accrued from impending competitions to inform appropriate religious coping interventions. This notwithstanding, the Minimum Clinical Important Difference (MCID) of the Brief RCOPE should be further investigated to enhance the utility of the instrument for use in intervention-based studies.

Uncovering Cognitive Distortions in Adolescents: Cultural Adaptation and Calibration of an Arabic Version of the “How I Think Questionnaire”

“…To determine the factor structure of the measure, the Kaiser eigenvalues, parallel analysis, and the scree plot were compared [45]. This tripartite approach to determining the latent structure of a measure has been endorsed and utilised in other validation studies [55,56].…”

Spiritual and religious aspects influence mental health and viral load: a quantitative study among young people living with HIV in Zimbabwe

“…The 804 participants (aged [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] for the quantitative study part were beneficiaries of Zvandiri's peer support programme in Zimbabwe. 36 Participants were selected from MoHCC facilities in seven districts.…”

“…The Brief Religious Coping Index (Brief RCOPE)22 measures positive and negative religious coping. It is the most widely used religious measure and has been validated in very diverse cultural and religious contexts, such as among Chinese in Singapore23 or recently among African athletes from three African countries (Benin, Ghana and Nigeria) 24. Most studies link positive religious coping with better health, like Kremer et al who relate spiritual coping with a prediction of CD4-cell preservation and undetectable viral load over 4 years 25.…”

“…It is the most widely used religious measure and has been validated in very diverse cultural and religious contexts, such as among Chinese in Singapore 23 or recently among African athletes from three African countries (Benin, Ghana and Nigeria). 24 Most studies link positive religious coping with better health, like Kremer et al who relate spiritual coping with a prediction of CD4-cell preservation and undetectable viral load over 4 years. 25 In a recent study from Brazil, resilience among PLHIV was significantly and positively correlated with positive religious coping and negatively correlated with negative religious coping.…”