Assessment of Psychological Zone of Optimal Performance among Professional Athletes: EGA and Item Response Theory Analysis

Abstract

Sport psychology researchers have been investigating athletes’ ideal performance levels for a long time. Key areas of investigation in this field involve determining if there is an optimal performance zone and how to evaluate it. To advance this line of research, the current research aimed to create a short but reliable tool for assessing the psychological state of professional athletes during their peak performance, known as the “optimal performance zone”. After developing an initial item pool, the final 10-item scale was retained and validated using factor analytical models and item response theory analysis based on 357 Chinese professional athletes in 12 different sports types. The average age of the participants was 19.4 years (SD = 3.67), and 54% were male. Experience in the sport ranged from 2 to 15 years, with a mean of 5.82 years (SD = 3.65). The brief scale was found to form a one-factor solution, with factor loading ranging from 0.55 to 0.77. The IRT-based marginal reliability of this scale is 0.90, and the scale showed predictive validity in predicting an athlete’s professional ranking (χ2(3) = 8.34, p = 0.039). The brief scale can quickly screen for a psychological zone of optimal performance among professional athletes, and implications are discussed.