Athlete injury coach attitude scale: A scale development study

Sports injuries are a critical issue that directly affects both athletes' performance and coaches' professional responsibilities. Understanding the anxieties, concerns, and attitudes experienced by coaches during the injury process is essential for explaining interactions within the sports environment. Therefore, this study aimed to develop a valid and reliable scale to measure coaches' anxieties, concerns, and attitudes regarding sports injuries. The study sample consisted of 607 coaches working in the Provincial Directorates of Youth and Sports in Gümüşhane, Trabzon, and Adıyaman; the Faculties of Sports Sciences at Gümüşhane, Adıyaman, and Erciyes Universities; and the private sports sector. An initial item pool was created through a comprehensive literature review and evaluated for content validity based on expert opinions. The suitability of the data for factor analysis was confirmed by the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin value (KMO = 0.909) and Bartlett's Test of Sphericity (χ² = 1981.603, df = 78, p < 0.001). Exploratory factor analysis led to the removal of six items due to low factor loadings and weak item-total correlations, resulting in a 13-item scale with a three-factor structure explaining 66.6% of the total variance. The factors were labeled as "Coach's Performance and Self-Efficacy Concern," "Athlete Competence and Perception of Re-injury," and "Injury Prevention and Holistic Approach." Confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated good model fit (χ²/df = 2.091; RMSEA = 0.060; NFI = 0.937; NNFI = 0.953; CFI = 0.966; GFI = 0.943; AGFI = 0.909). The overall reliability of the scale was high (Cronbach's Alpha = 0.895), with subscale reliability coefficients of 0.860, 0.835, and 0.736. The findings indicate that the Athlete Injury Coach Attitude Scale is a valid and reliable measurement tool that contributes to the literature by enabling the assessment of coaches' attitudes toward athlete injuries.