Abstract
Imagery has been shown to improve sport performance, and performance related behaviours and cognitions for athletes competing in both independent and interdependent sports (Munroe et al., 2000). Although imagery is an individual cognition, it has shown positive relationships with group based cognitions including cohesion (Hardy et al., 2003) and collective efficacy (Shearer et al., 2007). However, a potential limitation with those studies is the use of the Sport Imagery Questionnaire (Hall et al., 1998) given it measures imagery use from an individual perspective. Shearer et al. (2007) suggested that it may be advantageous to measure imagery use within interdependent sport teams from a team perspective. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the construct validity of a team sport version of the Sport Imagery Questionnaire (SIQ-TS), which assessed imagery from a team-level perspective. Participants included 284 interdependent sport team athletes (male n = 177, female n = 107) with an average age of 22.89 years (SD = 5.88). Model fit statistics (i.e., χ2, RMSEA, SRMR, CFI, TLI) for the hypothesized 5 factor model was examined using CFA. Four items were deleted from the 30 item SIQ-TS yielding acceptable model fit and reliability (α’s = .76 - .86) for each subscale. Possible research applications of the SIQ-TS for interdependent sport team athletes are discussed.
