Agormedah Edmond Kwesi, Quansah Frank, Srem-Sai Medina, Ankomah Francis, Hagan John Elvis, Schack Thomas
Department of Business and Social Sciences Education, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana.
Department of Educational Foundations, University of Education, Winneba, Ghana.
Front Psychol. 2023 Jan 4;13:1038202. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1038202. eCollection 2022.
Previous studies have revealed that religious coping strategy is common among athletes due to the stressful experiences before and during competitions as part of the mental preparations they go through, the uncertainty of sporting outcomes, and other organizational issues they encounter. This research assessed the reproducibility of the Brief Religious Coping (RCOPE) instrument in an African setting using athletes' samples from different countries. Particularly, the research sought to assess the (1) factor structure of Brief RCOPE with an African sample, (2) construct validity of the RCOPE measure, and (3) measurement invariance of the RCOPE instrument based on gender and nationality.
The study surveyed a convenient sample of 300 athletes, including 164 male and 136 female athletes, from 3 African countries (Benin, Ghana, and Nigeria) who participated in the 2018 West African University Games. The Brief RCOPE instrument was administered to the athletes for validation purposes before the competition. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted using the ordinal factor analytic approach.
This validation study confirmed the two-factor dimension (positive and negative religious coping) of the Brief RCOPE measure. Further, all items for each of the dimensions of the inventory contributed significantly to the measure of the Brief RCOPE domains. The positive and negative religious coping dimensions contributed more than half of the variance of their respective indicators. Measurement invariance across gender and nationality was confirmed.
Sufficient evidence was gathered to support the interpretation and use of the Brief RCOPE measure. Coaches and sports psychologists could adopt the Brief RCOPE measure to understand the mental or thought patterns of religious athletes based on existential concerns or stress accrued from impending competitions to inform appropriate religious coping interventions. This notwithstanding, the Minimum Clinical Important Difference (MCID) of the Brief RCOPE should be further investigated to enhance the utility of the instrument for use in intervention-based studies.
先前的研究表明，宗教应对策略在运动员中很常见，这是由于比赛前和比赛期间的压力经历是他们心理准备的一部分，体育比赛结果的不确定性，以及他们遇到的其他组织问题。本研究使用来自不同国家的运动员样本，评估了简易宗教应对（RCOPE）工具在非洲环境中的可重复性。具体而言，该研究旨在评估：（1）非洲样本中简易RCOPE的因子结构；（2）RCOPE测量的结构效度；（3）基于性别和国籍的RCOPE工具的测量不变性。
该研究对来自3个非洲国家（贝宁、加纳和尼日利亚）参加2018年西非大学运动会的300名运动员进行了便利抽样调查，其中包括164名男性运动员和136名女性运动员。在比赛前，将简易RCOPE工具施用于运动员以进行验证。使用有序因子分析方法进行探索性和验证性因子分析。
这项验证研究证实了简易RCOPE测量的双因子维度（积极和消极宗教应对）。此外，量表各维度的所有项目对简易RCOPE领域的测量都有显著贡献。积极和消极宗教应对维度分别占各自指标方差的一半以上。证实了性别和国籍之间的测量不变性。
收集了充分的证据来支持简易RCOPE测量的解释和使用。教练和运动心理学家可以采用简易RCOPE测量，以基于即将到来的比赛所产生的生存担忧或压力，了解宗教运动员的心理或思维模式，从而为适当的宗教应对干预提供依据。尽管如此，简易RCOPE的最小临床重要差异（MCID）仍需进一步研究，以提高该工具在基于干预的研究中的实用性。
