Sport-Specific Amcamp: New Modular Tools For Measuring Adolescent Self-Confidence in Sport-Specific Movement

BACKGROUND: Despite increasing interest throughout sports rehabilitation in psychological factors that affect outcome such as the impact of self-efficacy on readiness to return to play, few clinical tools are available to assess a patient’s self-confidence in performing sports-specific movement patterns in the pediatric/adolescent population prior to return to sport. HYPOTHESIS/PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to develop and validate sports-specific modules to supplement a general measure of movement self-efficacy, the Adolescent Measure of Confidence and Movement Performance (AMCaMP) and provide clinicians with reliable and valid tools to assess adolescent self-confidence in performing sports-specific movements. METHODS: After preliminary testing for readability and ease of administration, we administered one of 12 sport-specific modules pertinent to the individual’s sport (baseball, softball, basketball, football, gymnastics, cheerleading, soccer, ballet, swimming, lacrosse, tennis, and cross country), to a total of 14,744 patients, 11-18 years of age, who were drawn from 12 pediatric sports physical therapy facilities in a single health care system. Respondents completed the assigned sport-specific self-report questionnaire both at their initial visits and upon conclusion of their episodes of care. Results were analyzed using classical test theory measures including but not limited to factor analysis suitability, exploratory factor analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis. RESULTS: Based on sample sizes, Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity, and Kaiser-Myer-Olkin measures, nine of the 12 candidate modules (baseball, softball, basketball, football, gymnastics, cheerleading, soccer, ballet, and swimming) were deemed suitable for factor analysis. The sample for each module was then divided into a test sample and a validation sample to avoid model overfitting and to check for generalizability. Exploratory factor analysis revealed an underlying structure ranging from one to three factors depending upon the particular module. Subsequent confirmatory factor analyses fully supported the hypothesized factor structures for each module except swimming. Additional analyses to determine coefficient alpha (range=0.8-0.976), Standard Error of Measurement (range=1.12-2.33), and Minimum Detectable Change (range=3.1-6.47) confirmed the reliability of each of these modules. CONCLUSION: The AMCAMP sport-specific modules are reliable and valid self-report tools to capture self-confidence in performing essential movements specific to a sport and supplement the AMCAMP’s evaluation of self-efficacy in performing the general movements of everyday life. The results of this study support the use of the AMCAMP sport-specific modules as a reliable and valid self-report instruments as part of the overall clinical evaluation of psychological readiness to return to sport.