MEASURING COACHES’ INTERPERSONAL BEHAVIOURS: VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY STUDY

The aim of this study was to test the validity and reliability of Turkish version of Tripartite Measure of Interpersonal Behaviors-Coach (TMIB-C) which was developed by Bhavsar et al. (2019). The scale measures athletes' perception of coaches' need-supportive, need-thwarting and need-indifferent behaviors. Two hundred twenty-five male and 125 females, a total of 350 (Mage=18.74±4.35) athletes participated in the study. Personal information form, Tripartite Measure of Interpersonal Behaviors-Coach along with positive and negative behavior sub-dimensions of Coaching Behavior Scale for Sport were administered to the participants. Data were analyzed by confirmatory factor analysis in AMOS 20. Pearson correlation coefficients among the variables and average variance extracted (AVE) values were calculated for convergent and discriminant validity. Reliability was tested by Cronbach’s alpha and composite reliability coefficients. Model fit indices reached the acceptable level with deletion of the items 9 and 10 which had low factor loadings (χ2/df=453.372/165=2.75; RMSEA=.07, NFI=.90; NNFI=.92, CFI=.93, AGFI=.85; SRMR=.046). “Need thwarting” and “need indifference” behaviors negatively correlated with positive coaching behaviors (p<.05, discriminant validity), whereas these behaviors positively correlated with negative coaching behaviors (p<.05, convergent validity). While “need supporting behavior” positively correlated with positive coaching behaviors (p<.05, convergent validity), it negatively correlated with negative coaching behaviors (p<.05, discriminant validity). AVE values were between .51 and .56. Cronbach's alpha and composite reliability coefficients were between .86 and .91. The findings suggest that, Turkish version of Tripartite Measure of Interpersonal Behaviors-Coach can be used to measure athletes’ perception of coaches’ interpersonal behaviors.