An examination of the psychometric properties of the Youth Experiences Survey for Sport (YES-S)

Abstract

The Youth Experience Survey 2.0 (YES 2.0; Hansen & Larson, 2005) helps measure PYD of regular experiences, but has been found to have questionable validity when used in a sporting environment. The YES-Sport (YES-S) was developed from the YES-S to measure the positive and negative outcomes of PYD specifically within sport (MacDonald et al., 2012). The YES-S comprises five factors - personal and social skills, initiative experiences, cognitive skills, goal setting and negative experiences - that were determined through exploratory factor analyses.  The current study was aimed to confirm this factor structure using confirmation factor analysis.  A sample of 346 Canadian youth sport participants (M age = 15.41 years) completed the YES 2.0 and Coaching Behavior Scale for Sport (CBS-S).  A confirmatory factor analysis of the YES-S factor structure showed a poor fit of the model to the data (CFI = .860, SRMR = .076, RMSEA = .071).  However deleting the items with poor factor loadings (as per Hair et al., 2006) resulted in an excellent model fit (CFI = .955, SRMR = .054, RMSEA = .059). This revised version of the YES-S includes 22 items that reflect MacDonald et al.’s (2012) five-factor structure.  Regressions predicting the YES-S from the CBS-S were significant for four of the five factors, with the perceived coaching behavior of positive rapport being the most consistent predictor.   This revised version of the YES-S presents a valid and psychometrically sound scale for the much needed measurement of PYD outcomes specific to the sporting context.

Acknowledgments: This research was supported by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)