Validation and Psychometrics of the Persian Version of the Psychobiosocial Experiences in Sport Scale

Participation in sports and physical activities has always been accompanied by emotional, affective, social, and behavioral experiences. However, a tool that can capture different sensory and perceptual experiences of individuals is not sufficiently available to athletes. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate the validity and reliability of the Persian version of the Psycho-Biological-Social Experiences in Sport Scale. For this purpose, 197 athletes in the age range of 20 to 28 years from football (52), volleyball (44), handball (34), martial arts (27), wrestling (12), swimming (11), and track and field (17) were selected through random cluster sampling and completed the Psycho-Biological-Social Experiences in Sport and Coping Strategies questionnaires. The results of confirmatory factor analysis showed that 30 items of the questionnaire loaded well on 10 factors and three major psychological, biological, and social subscales. The SRMR index was 0.08 and the NFI value was 0.91, indicating a good fit of the model. Also, internal consistency through Cronbach's alpha (0.73 to 0.96) and composite reliability (0.86 to 0.96) showed that the items within each subscale have a good correlation with each other. The results of the Fornell-Larker criterion confirmed the divergent validity. Also, the convergent construct validity showed that there is a significant correlation between psycho-biological-social experiences and coping strategies. Therefore, the validity and reliability of the Persian version of the questionnaire were confirmed and discussed based on the theories of individual optimal functional areas, emotion appraisal, and multidimensional emotion.