Le abilità mentali nello sport: un’analisi esplorativa delle proprietà psicometriche dell'ACSI-28

The always increasing attention toward the influence that mental abilities have on performance, has favoured the construction and validation of new instruments specific for the sport settings. The athletic coping skill is the ability of maintain the emotional control in the most difficult moments of competition and it could represent a factor of success in sport. The aim of this research was to study the psychometric proprieties of the Athletic Coping Skills Inventory (ACSI-28) of Smith, Schutz, Smoll and Ptacek (1995). The questionnaires measure both the athletic coping abilities and different mental skills (for example: Concentration and Confidence). This Italian version of the ACSI-28 was administered during a sport-medical visit to a sample of athletes of different sports, particularly sports team. An exploratory analysis has been made by principal component method. The results have shown a partial confirmation of the structure to seven dimensions, with a sufficient internal consistence and an adequate ability of discriminate the athletes according to age, gender and level of competition. The questionnaire has some interesting potentiality that claim for additional confirmation.