Sarah Doyle, Kylee Speedy, Dr. Ryan Hamilton, Dr. Janine Olthuis

Athletes experience unique mental and physical stressors throughout their sporting careers. Existing measures of psychological stress primarily focus on the psychological reactions to stress by investigating the future consequences of stress, such as burnout and anxiety, rather than the stressors themselves. The purpose of the current study is to develop a brief self-report measure of sports-related psychological stress, assessing experiences of pressure, frustration, internal conflict, and change as outlined by the Transactional Stress Theory. This study consists of three phases to determine the psychometric properties of a potential list of items assessing state psychological stress among athletes. In phase one (completed), the research team (including varsity athletes and research experts in this field) generated a list of potential items. Phase two (completed) involved guided focus groups with two groups of five varsity athletes at the University of New Brunswick, to determine face and content validity of the items and revise the initial item pool. Phase two (ongoing) is using a cross-sectional approach to examine the internal consistency, convergent, and discriminant validity of the refined list of items via self-report survey amongst a sample of university-aged student-athletes. Results of all three phases will be presented. This study will provide preliminary support for a new, brief measure of state psychological stress for athletes.