Takemura Ryoko

The aim of this study was to develop a scale for measuring the team image of excellent sport groups. We tried to focus on "image" and we created a new scale named the "Sports Team Image Scale" to assess excellent team images.<BR>    First, 28 items were developed through a brainstorming investigation by a graduate student and 3 student athletes about how excellent teams were. In order to ensure objectivity, the group of items collected and created was closely examined by one university teacher from an area of study other than sports, 5 university teachers who specialized in sports and 4 graduate students in the same fields regarding whether the items expressed "excellent teams" or not.<BR>    These items then were administered to 126 student athletes (Mage=19.36±0.94, 66% male) . Using factor analysis, and in order to extract objective images of group members, we asked for responses using an open-ended investigation, "What were the impressive events you experienced while you were involved in the club' s activities?" It was determined that the scale had 2 factors (team performance and team balance: r=.693) . Cronbach' s alpha coefficient was greater than .80 for 2 factors.<BR>    In the main research, the scale was administered to 603 students (Mage=19.26±1.08, 51% male) involved in athletic clubs in the Kanto area of Japan. A factor analysis revealed that the 14 items could be separated into 2 factors (team performance and team balance : r=.693) . We replicated the two factor structure from our preliminary evaluation of the scale.<BR>    Cronbach' s alpha coefficient was greater than .80 for both subscales. In addition, significant correlations were observed between our scale and the GEQ, Therefore, the construct validity of that scale was moderately supported.