Validity and reliability of the Sport Motivation Scale-II for Chinese athletes

Self-determination theory (SDT) has been widely used for studying athlete motivation. The Sport Motivation Scale-II (SMS-II), a SDT-based multidimensional scale, was recently developed to assess athlete motivation. The present research consisting of three studies aimed to develop the Chinese version of the SMS-II (CSMS-II). In Study 1, the SMS-II was translated into Chinese and then administered to university athletes (N = 267). The factorial structure of the CSMS-II was tested with confirmatory factor analysis and it was generally supported. In Study 2, the factorial and external validity of the CSMS-II were evidenced with another independent sample of athletes (N = 259). In Study 3, the test-retest reliability of the CSMS-II responses was supported. In conclusion, the CSMS-II is considered reliable and valid in general for the use with the Chinese university athletes.