Evidências de Validade da Escala de Pensamentos Automáticos em jogadores de futebol

Abstract

Soccer is one of the most popular sports in the world today and has great cultural identification with Brazilians. Among the many professionals who work in soccer, there is the psychologist, who elaborates psychological training programs aiming to identify fundamental cognitive skills for the athlete’s performance and emotional balance. In this context, the importance of psychological assessment is highlighted as a way of detecting the psychological aspects that interfere with sports performance and which are the basis for planning and carrying out interventions in Sport Psychology. Some authors have pointed out the existence of few instruments for the psychological assessment of automatic thoughts and other psychological constructs in sport, and this makes it difficult for the Psychologist to work in Sports, especially in soccer. The scarcity of instruments validated for the context of sport in Brazil is considered one of the biggest challenges for Sport Psychology in terms of quantitative assessment. Psychological measures that are directly related to performance can strengthen the work of Sport Psychologists in general and in football, by offering empirical data to support interventions by technical committees. Considering this scenario, this study aimed to conduct a study on the validity evidence of the Automatic Thoughts in Soccer Players Scale (EPAJF), supported by Aaron Beck’s cognitive model. To carry out the content analysis of the scale, the items were pasted into a single document and three expert judges were asked to: 1) verify in a quantitative analysis a) adequacy to the category, b) clarity of language, c) practical relevance and theoretical relevance of the items; 2) in a qualitative analysis, suggest modifications that they deem pertinent to improve the items. Then, the content validity coefficient was calculated based on the assessment made by expert judges in the content analysis questionnaire - quantitative. After calculating the coefficient, 58 items were identified with 80% agreement among judges, and 26 items with 100% agreement. Following the study, empirical procedures were performed, which consisted of applying the instrument to a sample of 192 soccer players over 18 years old, with a mean age of 25.48 years (SD = 6.97). The tabulation and analysis of the results regarding the validity of the measure were carried out using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). The FACTOR software, version 11.05.01, was used for the analysis of data factoriability, number and rotation of factors, and the Jasp software for calculation of reliability indices. The initial results indicated the relevance of the model with 26 items and 100% agreement obtained in the Content Analysis. From the analysis of the internal structure, it indicated a model with 4 factors with Cronbach's Alpha (α) and Omega (Ω) of McDonald between 0,54 and 0,76, considered acceptable. Two factors were formed by dysfunctional automatic thought items and were named “Vision of Helplessness” and “Vision of Hopelessness”, respectively, and two factors were formed by functional automatic thought items and were named “Vision of Appreciation” and “Rational Vision”. The final version after the AFE indicated an EPAJF model with 22 items and four factors. New studies must be carried out to carry out the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) using a larger sample, in order to give robustness to the empirical evidence in terms of validity and reliability of the constructed measure.