Development of a Cohesion Inventory for Children's Sport Teams

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to develop an inventory designed to measure cohesion in children's (ages 9–12) sport teams. In order to carry out this task, a three-phase research program was undertaken. Phase 1 involved the use of focus groups with 35 (nmales = 14, nfemales = 21) children, open-ended questionnaires with 132 (nmales = 63, nfemales = 69) children, and a literature review in order to better understand children's perceptions of the concept of cohesion. Phase 2 involved using information gathered from Phase 1 in order to develop potential items and determine their content validity. In Phase 3, factorial validity was established using confirmatory factor analyses with an independent heterogeneous sample (n = 298) of child sport participants. The result is the final version of the Child Sport Cohesion Questionnaire (CSCQ) containing 16 items that assess both task and social cohesion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved)