The Persian version of the psychological flexibility in sport scale: a psychometric study
Open accessAbstract
Background: There is a growing body of research suggesting that psychological flexibility (PF) is an important psychological construct related to psychological health and human performance. The Psychological Flexibility in Sport Scale (PFSS) is the first general scale to assess sport-related PF. So far, the PFSS has not yet been validated in other contexts than Sweden. Therefore, the current study sought to investigate a Persian version of the PFSS (P-PFSS) and extend the investigation of the psychometric properties of the PFSS in Iranian athletes. Methods: A total of 302 athletes from both team and individual sports (average age of 20.7 years, SD ± 7.5, 62.3% were female) were involved in the current study. Statistical analysis was performed on the data to test validity and reliability. The validity of the P-PFSS was tested through face and content validity, construct validity, criterion validity, and known-groups validity. The reliability of P-PFSS was verified through internal consistency and temporal stability of the scale. Results: Results revealed that validity of the P-PFSS was satisfactory. The instrument was determined to have strong face and content validity. With modifications, the confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the scale’s unidimensionality. The convergent validity of the P-PFSS was found to be acceptable (average variance extracted = 0.66) and satisfactory results were also found in the correlation matrix for the assessment of construct validity. The P-PFSS showed good criterion validity related to generic psychological flexibility and athletic-related variables. Also, the P-PFSS was able to differentiate PF between known groups. The P-PFSS was found to be reliable, with good internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.92; composite reliability = 0.92) and temporal stability on retest (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.95). Conclusions: Overall, the Persian version of the PFSS showed good psychometric qualities in Iranian athletes. The current study provides additional support for the PFSS and extends the context-specific utility for practitioners and researchers in assessing sport-related PF.
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In the original and Persian adaptations of SPEÖ, the relationship between psychological flexibility and depression and anxiety was examined.
“SPEÖ'nün orijinalinde ve İ ran diline uyarlanan ölçekte, psikolojik esneklik kavram ı ile depresyon ve anksiyete aras ı ndaki ili ş ki incelenmi ş tir.”
From The Psychological Flexibility Sport Scale: Adaptation, Validity and Reliability Study (2023) · cites this paper as [22]
The Results (Criterion validity, Table 4; page not specified) report correlations between the Persian PFSS and both depression and anxiety, so the claim is supported for the Persian adaptation. The Introduction describes the original Swedish PFSS’s psychometric evaluation but does not establish that its relationship with depression and anxiety was examined. (LLM, conf=0.82)
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- Authors
- Badinlou, F., Badami, R., Reinebo, G., Jansson-Fröjmark, M., Sepehri, F., Molaviniya, S., & Lundgren, T.
- Affiliations
- Region Stockholm (SE)
- Islamic Azad University, Isfahan (IR)
- Corresponding author
- Badinlou, Farzaneh
- Venue
- BMC Psychology
- Published
- 2022-11-04
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 250-250
- ISSN
- 2050-7283 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC9636715
- OpenAlex
- W4308211612
- Cited by
- 6
- References
- 57
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1
- FWCI
- 1.52
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- BMC Psychology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Karolinska Institute
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Sport Psychology and Performance
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Psychometric Methodologies and Testing
- Keywords
- psychological flexibility, Persian translation, scale validation, athletes, psychometric properties, construct validity, reliability statistics, individual and team sports, Iranian athletes
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Female, Humans, Iran, Male, Psychometrics, Surveys and Questionnaires, Sports, Reproducibility of Results, Young Adult
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