An extended validation of the Communal Coping Strategies Inventory for Competitive Team Sports: A multilevel approach

Area of Science:

• Sports Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Psychometrics

Background:

• Effective measurement of communal coping in sports is crucial for understanding team stress.
• The original Communal Coping Strategies Inventory for Competitive Team Sports (CCSICTS) required validation at collective and situational levels.
• Existing tools needed refinement for broader application in diverse sport contexts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To refine and validate the factorial structure of the CCSICTS at both individual and team levels.
• To confirm the psychometric properties of the revised CCSICTS (CCSICTS-R) in competitive team sports.
• To establish the CCSICTS-R's validity in sport-specific stressful situations.

Main Methods:

• Two studies were conducted with French athletes (N=380 in Study 1, N=641 in Study 2) from multiple teams.
• Factor analysis was employed to assess the factorial structure at individual and team levels.
• The revised CCSICTS (CCSICTS-R) was evaluated for its multilevel, hierarchical, and bifactorial properties.

Main Results:

• Study 1 supported a multilevel, hierarchical, four-dimensional factorial structure for the CCSICTS-R at individual and team levels.
• Study 2 confirmed this factorial structure and its validity in sport-specific contexts.
• A bifactorial structure was identified, supporting the interpretation of communal coping as a team's adaptive capacity to stress.

Conclusions:

• The psychometric qualities of the CCSICTS-R are established for both individual and team levels.
• The CCSICTS-R provides a robust measure of communal coping characteristics in sports.
• This validated instrument is suitable for research and practical use in team sports.