Validation of the English Proficiency Questionnaire in professional hockey players

To develop the English Proficiency Questionnaire (EPQ), a brief, easily deployable measure of English language proficiency and conduct a preliminary validation study of the EPQ in a linguistically and culturally diverse sample of National Hockey Leage players.

A diverse sample of 191 players representing nine different nationalities completed (in English) the EPQ and a battery of traditional ("Paper-and-Pencil", PnP) neuropsychological tests, including the Test of Premorbid Functioning (TOPF), during 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 pre-seasons as part of a larger re-norming project.

Principal components analysis revealed one factor that explained 71.37% of the observed variance and generated strong internal consistency (alpha coefficient = 0.86). Statistically significant relationships with medium effect sizes emerged between EPQ Total ratings and TOPF performance (r = 0.33, p < .001) and age when athlete first learned English (r = -0.33, p < .001), but not for age when the athlete moved to an English-speaking country (ρ = -0.09, p > .05). EPQ Total Ratings were significantly correlated with eight of 10 neuropsychological test indices except for Brief Visuospatial Memory Test-Revised (BVMT-R) Total and BVMT-R Delay. Regression models accounted for 4.4%-24.0% of the variance in PnP test performance. The TOPF accounted for unique variance in 8/10 PnP measures, and EPQ variables in 7/10.

Beyond normative data, the EPQ can assist clinicians assessing patients who speak English as a non-preferred language. Findings support the use of the EPQ with different primary language groups, which in combination with robust group-specific normative data, may guide clinicians to a more culturally responsive understanding of the patient's cognitive functioning prior to and following sports-related concussion.