SELF-EFFICACY SCALE CONSTRUCTION AND VALIDATION IN SWIMMING

The aim of this paper is to make a scale construction for the assessment of self-efficacy in athlete swimmers. The initial version of the scale has been constructed with 34 items that cover different aspects of swimming in interaction with the environmental forces, physical and emotional states and personal experience in various situations. The validation of the scale was done on the sample of 146 male and female swimmers, aged between 13 and 29, that participated in the Croatian Championship in July of 2015. The reliability factor of the initial scale with 34 items is alpha = 0,86, the mean inter-item correlation is 0,155, and 19,87 % of the whole variance has been explained by the first principal component, i. e. the main object of measurement. The initial version of the scale is considered to be a good example for assessment of self-efficacy in swimmers. Findings show that the scale could contain less items and still keep satisfactory metric characteristics.