The physical activity and sport anxiety scale (PASAS): Scale development and psychometric analysis

Abstract

Research suggests that social anxiety may be elicited in athletic or sporting situations, resulting in decreased physical activity due to avoidance behavior. Given the myriad physical and psychological health consequences of a non-active lifestyle, valid assessment of social anxiety and avoidance in this domain is warranted. However, none of the common measures of social anxiety appear to assess social anxiety in physical activity or sporting domains. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate a brief measure of social anxiety in physical activities and sports. A 16-item self-report questionnaire, the Physical Activity and Sport Anxiety Scale (PASAS), was extracted from a larger pool on empirical and theoretical grounds. The PASAS demonstrated excellent internal consistency across a number of samples, and excellent temporal stability. The PASAS also demonstrated good convergent and divergent validity, and is related to self-perceived performance biases as postulated by cognitive-behavioral models of social anxiety.

Keywords:

• Social anxiety
• Sport
• Athletics
• Scale development

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the assistance of Jennifer Burkey, Aura Cook, Eric Henning, Kimberley Krajewski, Jeff Prusmack, Charity Ross, Bobbi Schamberg, and Tylr Wagner, for their assistance in item generation and data collection, and Bruce Bauer, James Burns, Leslie Cohn, Tami DeCoteau, Lindsay Ham, and Melanie Van Dyke for their assistance in item generation. Portions of this project were completed as part of the third author's undergraduate honors thesis at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.