Reliability and validity of the greek version of the sports physiotherapists views on psychological strategies (spvps) questionnaire

 

Introduction

Physiotherapists are closely involved with injured athletes during rehabilitation. It has been suggested that they might be suited to provide psychological assistance to them. Therefore it is important to assess the sport physiotherapists’ attitudes toward psychological techniques. However, there are no any validate questionnaires in Greek language that measure the opinions of physiotherapists: (a) on the value of psychological strategies in facilitating coping with injury rehabilitation, and (b) the importance of having knowledge on psychological techniques when treating injured athletes. The purpose of the present study was to analyse the psychometric properties of the Greek Version of the SPVPS Questionnaire (Ninedek & Kolt, 2000).

Methods

The 36-item questionnaire consists of three sections (12 items each), representing nine factors (four, three, and two factors in each section respectively). The questionnaire was administered in 150 physiotherapists (82 men and 68 women) from different physiotherapy clinics in Athens, ranging in age from 25 to 47 years (M=34.73, SD=4.73), with approximately six years of physiotherapy experience in athletic injuries (M=6.49, SD=4.10). The SPSS 10.00 was used in order to estimate the test-retest reliability (intra-class correlation), the internal consistency (Cronbach a), and factor structure (exploratory analysis). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to test the integrity of the hypothesized factor structure for each section, using structural equation modelling (EQS 5.7b).

Results

The SPVPS questionnaire subscales suggested high levels of test-retest reliability (mean = .98), whereas Cronbach’s alpha values were acceptable (mean Cronbach’s a = .67). The exploratory factor analysis revealed the same structure as in the original version of the questionnaire. Confirmatory factor analytic procedures indicated a rather acceptable factor structure of each section.

Discussion/Conclusions

The implications of these findings in relation to the rehabilitation process of an athletic injury are discussed. Future research will address the development of a new questionnaire regarding the views of physiotherapists on psychological strategies in injury rehabilitation.

 

References

[1]. Ninedek, A., & Kolt, G.S. (2000). Journal of Sport Rehabilitation, 9(3), 191-206.