Establishing validity evidence for the Sport Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale-2 in intercollegiate sport

Abstract

The purpose of the two studies presented in this paper is to establish validity evidence for the Sport Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale-2 (Sport-MPS-2: Gotwals & Dunn, 2009). Studies 1 and 2 are respectively focused on the production of structurally-related and external validity evidence. In Study 1, 263 male and female intercollegiate volleyball players (M age = 19.98 years) completed the Sport-MPS-2. In Study 2, 181 male intercollegiate ice hockey players (M age = 22.16 years) responded to the Sport-MPS-2, the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (Frost, Marten, Lahart, & Rosenblate, 1990), and a modified Sport Anxiety Scale (Smith, Smoll, & Schutz, 1990). Exploratory factor analysis results in Study 1 revealed supportive structurally-related validity evidence for the six factors of the Sport-MPS-2. Study 2 generated supportive external validity evidence by producing anticipated moderate to large positive correlations between conceptually analogous Sport-MPS-2 and Frost-MPS subscales (all ps < .001), using canonical correlation to demonstrate that the Sport-MPS-2 was able to represent theory-based relationships between perfectionism and competitive trait anxiety (CTA), and indicating that the Sport-MPS-2—but not the Frost-MPS—was capable of identifying an anticipated link between healthy perfectionism and CTA. Results provide support for the continued use of the Sport-MPS-2 as a measure of multidimensional perfectionism in sport.