Abstract
One variable that has lacked considerable research within sport group dynamics literature is trust. The purpose of this research is to develop a sport-specific measure of trust. Procedure followed a typical scale development parameter: 1) an understanding was developed through a comprehensive literature review of trust in sport and organizational science; 2) items were generated, a comprehensive list of items were developed and narrowed through an expert review process and think aloud protocol; and 3) an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted to identify the factor structure of the questionnaire based on participant's responses. Validity and reliability were also tested. The initial pool of items was refined through 4 expert reviews and a Think Aloud Protocol including 10 focus group participants. These steps refined the questionnaire and moved research into the next phase of EFA. One hundred and ninety-three team sport athletes completed the trust measure, as well as the Group Environment Questionnaire and a trust measure used in organizational research via online questionnaire software. Following the statistical and conceptual analysis of preliminary EFA outputs and the reduction of items, a principal axis factor analysis was conducted on the remaining 21 items with an oblique (direct oblimin) rotation. Three factors, Cognitive-based Task (CBT), Cognitive-based Interpersonal (CBI) and Affect-based (AB), with eigenvalues greater than 1 were retained explaining a combined variance of 55.1%. The further validation of the trust in sport measure will allow effective assessment of trust within sport and examining how it relates to different sport variables.
