Psychometric Properties of the Brief In-Competition Emotion Scale: The Persian Version

Background and Purpose
 
Various studies have shown that athletes' emotions can significantly affect their performance in sports competitions (Hanin & Ekkekakis, 2014). Emotions can be described as short-term and intense affective states triggered by specific stimuli, leading to distinct cognitive consequences (Podoynitsyna et al., 2012). However, it is surprising that researchers have paid less attention to the field of performance and excitement during competition. Many of the questionnaires often used in the literature related to excitement and competition to evaluate athletes' emotions are mood measures and are used to examine emotions before or after the competition. Therefore, the  goal of this research is to investigate and create a scale related to measuring excitement during competition.
The Brief In-Competition Emotion Scale (BICE) was introduced by Freemantle et al. (2021), and comprises ten questions that assess five main components: Anxiety, Anger, Dejection, Excitement, and Happiness. Considering the multidimensional and fundamental nature of excitement in athletes during competition, evaluating the dimensions of the Brief In-Competition Emotion Scale seems necessary. The background of past studies also supports the importance of paying attention to the nature of this concept in sports and competitive activities. Therefore, to develop an evaluation and prepare a suitable tool, the current research has tried to answer these questions: Does the Persian version of the Brief In-Competition Emotion Scale have the necessary validity? Does the Brief In-Competition Emotion Scale have the required reliability ?
Materials and Methods
The research was conducted using a descriptive-contextualization method. The statistical population included over 2700 student-athletes participating in the 15th Sports Cultural Olympiad of the country's students hosted by Tabriz University. 342 individuals participated in the research.
As the first step in the implementation of the present study, permission to translate the scale was obtained from the original author, and then the scale was translated from English to Persian using the translation-retranslation method. The athletes rated the importance of each item on a five-point Likert scale to evaluate the face validity of the scale. The quantitative face validity was assessed by calculating the item impact factor, which ranged from 2.88 to 4.83. Following this evaluation, no items were removed from the scale.
To check the qualitative content validity, six experts in the field of sports psychology were invited to review the scale. Also, to check the quantitative content validity of the scale, the professors were asked to complete the relevant forms to measure the content validity index (based on the three criteria of relevance, simplicity, and clarity of each item). The content validity index score was considered to be 0.78 and higher. After correcting the translation and meaning of the questions by experts and verifying their formal and content validity, the scale was distributed in the target community in an accessible form in two stages with the required number of samples. To determine the reliability of the scale in the statistical community of the research, in a preliminary study, 50 scale s were distributed, and the results of Cronbach's alpha test or the internal reliability of all subjects were α=0.89 for anxiety, α=0.76 for anger,  α=0.74 for depression, α=0.83 for arousal  and α=0.73 for happiness, all of which are above 0.7.
Results
The reliability (internal consistency) of each factor and the correlation coefficient of each question with the whole scale were assessed. According to Cronbach's alpha results of all the factors, it can be said that the reliability of the scale is acceptable in all of them. Also, the correlation coefficient of none of the questions with the whole scale is less than 0.3. To examine the factorial structure, the questions were subjected to exploratory analysis in the manner of principal components. The results of exploratory factor analysis showed that five factors explain 89.17% of the total variance. To determine the construct validity of the scale, the confirmatory factor analysis method was used with the help of Amos version 24 software. The results showed that all indicators are at an acceptable level. Therefore, the research data fits well with the factor structure of this scale.
Conclusion
The purpose of this study was to analyze the Persian version of The Brief In-Competition Emotion Scale from a psychometric perspective. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis showed that the scale is a reliable measurement and can be used to evaluate the  Emotion during the athletes' competition. The findings align with Yousefi, Tahmasebi, Hasani (2019), and Freemantle et al. (2021). Although this scale helps measure emotions during numerous sporting events, one of its main limitations is that it is unsuitable for sports without a specific break in competition, such as marathon running or cycling. This scale provides a suitable platform for sports psychologists to conduct research and practical work to improve the performance of Iranian athletes by identifying weaknesses and designing suitable psychological exercises. It is advisable to implement this scale in new environments where it may offer advantages, undergo further validation, and be used alongside other psychometric tests in various sports situations. Due to the limitation of using this scale in non-stop sports, it is recommended to develop and use innovative non-interventional measurement techniques.
Funding
The present study received no financial support from any institution or organization.
Authors' contributions
First author: Data collection and authorship of the introduction; Second and Third author: conceptualization, data analysis, writing and revision of the article.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declared no conflict of interest.