The initial development and validation of the Social Adaptability Skills Questionnaire: SASQ

Changing clubs over the course of an athletic career may not always be easy, and this has raised questions about how these changes affect career development. However, few studies have focused on the process of adapting to a new club and the factors that lead to success or failure. To address this gap in the literature, we aimed to develop and provide the initial validation of a questionnaire designed to assess athletes’ social adaptability skills (SAS). To do so, we conducted four studies, from the initial development stage to the final validation stage. In the first phase, we generated questionnaire items with clear content and face validity. The second phase explored the factor structure and reliability of the Social Adaptability Skills Questionnaire (SASQ). This was carried out with 543 young athletes in talent development through exploratory factor analysis (EFA), which was validated with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The EFA yielded a 17-item, four-factor structure with good internal reliability (⍺ = 0.876). The CFA revealed that the model fit indices were acceptable (RMSEA = 0.06, CFI = 0.809, TLI = 0.844, and GFI = 0.926). In addition, Latent Class Analysis (LCA) was applied to determine the predictive validity of SASQ resulting into identification of three classes (low achievers, average achievers, and high achievers) with four discriminating dimensions (coach, teammates, family, and club). The SASQ appears to be a promising psychometric instrument of potential usefulness for education and program reviews in applied settings and a measurement tool in talent development research.