Exploratory discriminant validity issues of the sport motivation scale-2

Abstract

The current study aims to evaluate the factor structure of the 18-item Sport Motivation Scale-2 (SMS-2; Mallett, Kawabata, Newcombe, Forero, & Jackson, 2007) with an independent sample group. The population that participated on the study comprised of 105 participants who completed the SMS-2. Their responses were examined with confirmatory factor analysis and recent exploratory structural equation modelling. A six-factor confirmatory-factor-analysis model did not fit to the sample data adequately. Through examination of the corresponding exploratory-structural-equation-modelling solution, it was found that two items loaded on non-target factors poorly. This result was replicated by a published data set (Mallett, Kawabata, Newcombe, et al., 2007). The modified confirmatory-factor-analysis model with these two items removed fit to the present study’s data satisfactorily and all 6 factors were adequately differentiated. These results generally validate the SMS-2 responses. Furthermore, this study demonstrated the usefulness of a comparison of confirmatory-factor-analysis and exploratory-structural-equation-modelling solutions for an accurate interpretation of individual parameters.