Appraisal of Required Life Skills for Athletes

A Scale Development on College Student Athletes

Abstract

The aim of this study was to develop an appraisal scale of required life skills for athletes. Scale development was conducted through preliminary and main research on college student athletes. We considered 10 dimensions of life skills based on coaches' practical experience, and used this to create as a hypothetical model of required life skills for athletes. In the preliminary research, the factor analysis was conducted with the collected data of 257 college student athletes (189 males and 68 females) to select list of items to assess life skills acquisition level. In the main research, the factor structure was identified by factor analysis using data obtained from 513 college student athletes (330 males and 183 females). The results showed that this scale covers 10 factors: stress management, setting goals, thinking carefully, appreciating others, communicating, maintaining etiquette and manners, always making one's best effort, taking responsibility for one's own behavior, being humble, and maintaining physical health and wellbeing. Additionally, the results indicated that (1) the hypothetical model of the study reflected actual psychological and behavioral characteristics of college student athletes; (2) the factor structure of this scale fitted the data well; (3) each dimension of life skills and total score were moderately reliable and valid. This scale was named the “Appraisal Scale of Required Life Skills for College Student Athletes”.