Table 2.

Main psychometric issues and recommendations for measuring well-being in sport performers

Psychometric issues	Main recommendations
Conceptual and theoretical	In the development of a measure of well-being in sport performers it is crucial that sport psychology researchers ensure that the structure of the instrument is theoretically grounded, contextually relevant, and empirically robust It is important for sport scholars to reach a consensus on the definition of well-being in sport performers. In view of the literature reviewed, well-being is best conceptualised as a dynamic and multi-dimensional state that further comprises of a variety of sub-component indicators The distinction between influencing factors, states of well-being (i.e. characteristics), and consequences of well-being (i.e. outcomes), is often blurred in the psychometric literature. Therefore, scholars should distinguish well-being from several related phenomena and provide a clear justification of the specific constructs or relationships among constructs that they intend to measure The establishment of a theory-driven definition and model of athlete well-being can provide scholars with a greater understanding of well-being, the implications of well-being related concepts and their findings
Item design and development	For subjective measures to be effective in obtaining information on the well-being of athletes, sport scholars need to consider several item development issues such as wording, comprehension, and interpretation of questions In accordance with a multi-dimensional view of well-being, it is recommended that scholars incorporate evaluations of cognition, affect, and psychological functioning—in a tripartite fashion To limit measurement error and enhance validity, careful considerations should be paid to the phraseology of items, to ensure that these are kept short, unambiguous, and easily understood. Scholars should also consider the specificity of items included, as well as the implications of negatively and positively weighted items To assess the quality of questions developed and to ensure the content validity of the scales constructed, it is recommended that sport scholars have the initial item pool reviewed by a diverse expert panel
Measurement and scoring	It is recognised that a combination of both objective and subjective assessments are required to provide an overall picture of human well-being. Yet, subjective measures are considered fundamental, in that they provide an overview of well-being that is grounded in people’s preferences, rather than in a priori judgements about what should be the most important aspects of well-being It is important that sport scholars consider the variety of subjective measurement approaches designed to assess well-being (e.g. self-report, experience sampling methods etc.) and select the method that is conceptually aligned with their research objectives The use of self-report methods are justified as they capture a snapshot into the well-being experiences of athletes whilst also remaining a practical and cost effective method of data collection To capture a complete rendering of subjective well-being, it is recommended that sport scholars combine a variety of dimensions into their measure (e.g. dimensionality, polarity, valence) to reflect the breadth and depth of well-being components It is recommended that sport scholars carefully consider the response format to be selected, the length of response scales, as well as the presentation of response categories, so that the need to capture as much meaningful variation is balanced against minimising respondent burden and frustration With respects to scoring, a ‘dashboard approach’ is suggested as a useful method to convey information, whereby the scores for each component indicator are averaged to produce several distinct domain-specific scores that illustrate the multiple ways in which well-being is achieved During the validation stage of psychometric development, it is important that sport scholars carefully consider the number of participants, frequency of participant assessment, as well as the ability level of participants recruited
Analytical and statistical	Sport scholars should acknowledge several analytical and statistical issues when developing a psychometric assessment tool. Specifically, scholars are encouraged to critically consider the approaches that have been used traditionally to examine the psychometric properties of measurement models (e.g. EFA and CFA) against more advanced methods (e.g. ESEM) When deciding on the optimal length of the scale to be used in sport, it is crucial that sport psychologists consider and reflect on the trade-off between shorter more practical measures on the one hand, against longer and more reliable scales on the other Sport scholars must be confident on the extent to which the scale captures the underlying concepts that they purport to measure. Therefore, it is critical for researchers to account for various confounding variables that are not related to the actual experience of subjective well-being and limit respondent error. These include issues relating to the design of the questionnaire, as well as situational factors (e.g. timing in competitive season, environment and location, people distributing the questionnaire and relationship with the sport performers) which may influence the acquisition of meaningful, accurate, and consistent data from athletes