MULTISAMPLE CONFIRMATORY FACTOR-ANALYSIS OF THE TASK AND EGO ORIENTATION IN SPORT QUESTIONNAIRE

The Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (TEOSQ: Duda, 1989 ; Duda & Nicholls, 1992) was designed to assess individual differences in the proneness for task and ego involvement in athletic settings. T he purpose of this study was to independently and simultaneously test the measurement model assumed to underlie the TEOSQ across intercolleg iate athletes (n = 143), college students enrolled in skill classes (n = 270), high school athletes (n = 310), and junior high school sport participants (n = 234). Single-sample confirmatory factor analysis (CF A) was employed to establish and to evaluate the tenability of a basel ine model in terms of each sample. A series of multi-sample CFAs were then conducted to test the invariance of the measurement and factor st ructure of the TEOSQ across the four groups. The measures of overall f it for the hypothetical two-factor structure of the TEOSQ were general ly acceptable, albeit weaker in the case of the college students. Furt her, the results of the multi-sample CFA did not support the assumptio n for intergroup invariance of the TEOSQ. This finding indicated that the 13 items and structure of the TEOSQ were not equally valid across the present four samples.