Involvement in sports: content of the phenomenon and measurement methodology

Relevance. The search for psychological resources of athletes' performance efficiency has led to the realization of the need to identify the characteristics of an athlete's attitude to sports activities. An indicator of this attitude is the phenomenon of involvement in activities, which characterizes the stability and effectiveness of athletes' sports motivation. In domestic sports psychology, it has been undeservedly little studied. The poor study of athletes' involvement is due to the lack of the necessary diagnostic tools. Purpose of the study. In this regard, the purpose of the presented study was to adapt a foreign methodology for diagnosing involvement in sports activities, the Athlete engagement questionnaire (Lonsdale C., Hodge K., Jackson S.A., 2007), including an assessment of the reliability and validity of the Russian-language version of the methodology. Research methodology. The reliability of the Athlete engagement questionnaire Russian version was assessed by the criterion of internal consistency. The construct validity of the questionnaire was established based on the identification of correlations between the indicators of the involvement diagnostic questionnaire and the indicators of motivation for playing sports. The study was conducted on a sample of one hundred and forty-seven athletes - representatives of various sports, actively involved in sports activities. Research results. Based on the factor analysis for the Russian version of the questionnaire, two indicators of involvement were determined: confidence in achieving goals and willingness to work actively to achieve goals. The Cron-bach's alpha coefficient indicators for these indicators were 0.837 and 0.891, respectively, which indicates the internal consistency of the questionnaire. Positive correlations of the involvement indicators with the indicators of sports motivation, especially the indicators of internal motives, indicate the validity of the adapted questionnaire. The adapted questionnaire allows us to establish indicators of confidence in achieving sports goals and readiness to make efforts to do this, to do the work necessary for this with desire, against the background of positive emotions.