Psychological Skills of Greek Basketball Players

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to examine the differences of the psychometric properties of the Athletic Coping Skills Inventory-28 (Smith et al., 1995), among Greek basketball athletes, (N=239, M=21.7 yrs, SD=4.175 ). All seven items of the questionnaire had acceptable internal consistency (Gronbah’s alpha was fluctuated between .61 - .76). The MANOVA analysis showed that: a) athletes with greater athletic experience scored higher on the psychological skills in relation with the athletes of lesser athletic experience p<.001, b) athletes who practiced more on a weekly basis scored higher on the psychological skills in comparison with those who practiced less, p<.001, c) also male athletes scored higher in comparison with the female ones p<.001, and finally, d) athletes of national categories showed greater development of their psychological skills in relation with athletes of local categories p<.001. In conclusion, the results showed that ACSI28 is a reliable instrument for the registration of the psychometric properties of Greek basketball athletes.