Confirmatory factor analysis of the group environment questionnaire with an intercollegiate sample

This study was designed to assess the factorial construct validity of the Group Environment Questionnaire (GEQ; Carron, Widmeyer, & Brawley, 1985) within a hypothesis-testing framework. Data were collected from 173 male and 148 female intercollegiate athletes. Based on Carron et al.'s (1985) conceptual model of group cohesion, the study examined (a) the extent to which the first-order four-factor model could be confirmed with an intercollegiate athlete sample and (b) the degree to which higher order factors could account for the covariation among the four first-order factors. The a priori models of GEQ, including both the first- and second-order factor models, were tested through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). CFA results showed that the theoretically specified first- and second-order factor models fit significantly better than all alternative models. These results demonstrated that the GEQ possesses adequate factorial validity and reliability as a measure of the sport group cohesion construct for an intercollegiate athlete sample.