Initial studies of a competition agressivity scale

This article describes the development of an aggressivity measure among athletes. Participants included 172 athletes, from five different sports, ranging in age from 14 to 58 years old (mean age 21 years, DP=5,99). The scale was composed of 54 items (on a three-point Likert scale) that described various aggressive behaviors. The subjects were asked to indicate the frequency of the behaviors from “always” to “sometimes” and “never.”. The differential item functioning results by sex pointed to six items favoring one of the groups. The data were analyzed by means of principal components analysis with a varimax rotation and suggested a three factor structure explaining 44,31% of the variance. The dimensions were, Intimidation, External Aggression and Internal Aggression. Chronbach’s alphas ranged from 0,74 to 0,90. No significant differences of the dimensions were observed between the studied sports. These data enables the instrument to be used in future research. Keywords: aggressivity; psychological assessment; sport psychology; factorial analysis; differential item functioning.