Adaptation of the Sport Injury Anxiety Scale to Turkish: Validity and Reliability Study

Objective: The aim of this study is to adapt the “Sport Injury Anxiety Scale” (SIAS) developed by Rex and Metzler (2016) to the Turkish language, and to test the validity and reliability of the adapted version. Material and Methods: The original form of SIAS consists of 21 items and seven sub-scales, and it is a five-point Likert-type scale (1: strongly disagree, 2: disagree, 3: neutral, 4: agree, 5: strongly agree). The sub-scales are: Loss of Athleticism, Being Perceived as Weak, Experiencing Pain, Letting Down Important Others, Reinjury, Loss of Social Support and Having an Impaired Self-Image. There is no negative item in the scale. In the study, firstly the English scale was translated into Turkish, and the Turkish scale was prepared according to experts’ opinions. Correlation analysis was used for language equivalence of the scale. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis methods were used in order to reveal the measurement structure, and to examine the construct validity, respectively. The reliability analysis of the scale and its sub-scales were firstly examined by calculating the Cronbach α coefficient, which is the indicator of internal consistency. Then, the reliability of the scale was examined by calculating the stability coefficients of the scale and its sub-scales, by the test-retest method. Results: It was determined that the Turkish version of the scale has language equivalence, and that the measurement structure of the adaptation scale consisted of 19 items and six sub-scales, and explained 65% of the total variance. According to confirmatory factor analysis, the six-factor measurement structure had a good fit with the data. Cronbach α coefficients of the sub-scales were calculated as: 0.724 for Loss of Athleticism, 0.645 for Being Perceived as Weak, 0.780 for Experiencing Pain, 0.876 for Letting Down Important Others, 0.608 for Reinjury, and 0.812 for Loss of Social Support, respectively. Accordingly, it was determined that the scale and its sub-scales had high internal consistency and reliability. Stability coefficients of the scale and its sub-scales were found to be high. Conclusion: It can be said that the Turkish version of the Sports Injury Anxiety Scale is a valid and reliable scale for measuring anxiety of athletes