Development and psychometric validation of the Amateur Football Tournament Satisfaction Scale using Rasch analysis

Amateur football tournaments attract millions of participants worldwide, yet no dedicated instrument exists to measure players' satisfaction with these experiences. This study developed and validated the Amateur Football Tournament Satisfaction Scale in full-length and short-form versions using Rasch analysis across two independent samples.

In Study 1, we generated an initial 30-item pool and used factor and Rasch analyses with 245 amateur players to purify the items, producing a 26-item full-length scale and a 10-item short form. In Study 2, we independently validated the short form with 407 participants through confirmatory factor analysis, reliability and validity testing, and differential item functioning analysis.

Both studies supported a unidimensional structure, with three purification rounds yielding the 26-item scale and confirmatory factor analysis supporting the short form's structure. The short form demonstrated high internal consistency (α = 0.897) and expected correlations with training satisfaction, group cohesion, and burnout. It correlated at 0.974 with the full-length version, although this may partly reflect item overlap. Most items functioned equivalently across gender and league participation groups, but a few Study 1 items showed significant DIF.

The Amateur Football Tournament Satisfaction Scale offers a psychometrically sound instrument for assessing amateur football tournament satisfaction. The full-length version suits detailed research, while the short form provides an efficient option for routine evaluation.