Abstract:

The purpose of the study was to investigate the psychometric properties of Leadership Scale for Sport -Athlete’s Perception of Coach’s Behavior version developed by Chelladurai and Saleh (1980) on professional athletes. The study was conducted with the athletes of the teams which compete in basketball (TB2L, TKB2L), football (Bank Asya 1.League, Spor Toto 2.League, Sport Toto 3. League), handball (Super League, 1.League) and volleyball (Aroma 1. League, Aroma 2. League, Aroma 3. League) leagues. 47 female (34.8%) and 88 male (65.2%) basketball players, 288 male (100%) soccer players, 120 female (52.2%) and 110 male (47.8%) handball players and, 66 female (%50.8) and 64 male (%49.2) volleyball players participated in the study. Leadership Scale for Sport which consists of 40 items under five sub-scales (training and instruction, democratic behavior, autocratic behavior, social support and rewarding behavior) was applied to the athletes. Confirmatory factor analysis and item analysis on the mean differences between 27% upper and lower groups were applied to the obtained data. Coefficients of internal consistency of the scale and it’s sub-scales were determined. Results of the confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the data fits well with the model. Item analysis results showed that t-values of all items in the scale were statistically significant (p<.01, p<.05). Cronbach’s alpha coefficients of the sub-scales were varied between .58 and .91 and general Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of the scale was .94. It is determined that the Leadership Scale for Sport - Athlete’s Perception of Coach’s Behavior version is a reliable and valid measurement tool which can be used on professional athletes