The ARSQ: The Athletes’ Received Support Questionnaire
in Journal of Sport and Exercise PsychologyClick name to view affiliation
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To address calls for context-specific measurement of social support, this article reports the development of the Athletes’ Received Support Questionnaire (ARSQ) and demonstrates initial evidence for its validity. Across four studies there was support for a four-dimensional structure reflecting emotional, esteem, informational, and tangible received support. There was also support for unidimensional and higher-order models. Further, Study 3 provided some support for convergent validity, with significant correlations between the corresponding dimensions of the ARSQ and the Inventory of Socially Supportive Behaviors. Study 4 provided evidence for the nomological validity of the ARSQ. Emotional and esteem support significantly predicted self-confidence and positive affect, and tangible support significantly moderated the relationship between stress and negative affect. Collectively, these results provide initial evidence for the validity of the ARSQ, and offer researchers flexibility to adopt either a multidimensional or aggregated approach to measuring received support.
Paul Freeman is with Sport and Health Sciences, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, St. Luke’s Campus, Exeter, UK. Pete Coffee is with the School of Sport, University of Stirling, Stirling, UK. Tjerk Moll is with the Department of Sport and Exercise Sciences, University of Chichester, Chichester, West Sussex, UK. Tim Rees and Nadine Sammy are with Sport and Health Sciences, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, St. Luke’s Campus, Exeter, UK.
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