Evidence of validity, reliability, and measurement invariance of the psychological characteristics related to sport performance questionnaire in Colombian athletes.

Background: The assessment of psychological characteristics is crucial for the intervention and monitoring of sports performance. However, there is a lack of instruments for measuring psychological characteristics in Colombian athletes. Methods: This research aimed to examine the validity and reliability of the scores obtained from the Psychological Characteristics related to Sport Performance Questionnaire (CPRD in Spanish). Two complementary studies were conducted: Study 1 included 1.305 athletes, comprising 412 women and 893 men, with an age range between 13 and 59 years, divided into age groups; Study 2 included 478 athletes, comprising 150 women and 328 men, with an age range between 13 and 37 years. Results: The four-factor, 37-item CPRD demonstrated acceptable internal consistency for stress control (SC), influence of performance evaluation (IPE), and motivation (M), but inconsistent reliability for team cohesion (TC) (ω = 0.64; α = 0.65), although overall reliability was satisfactory. The four-factor CPRD showed adequate model fit indices. Although the questionnaire demonstrated adequate concurrent validity, convergent validity was not satisfactory. Inverse correlations were observed between the four-factor CPRD and burnout dimensions, and acceptable ratios supporting discriminant validity were identified, along with measurement invariance across sport modality, sex, and age groups (ΔCFI and/or ΔRMSEA ≤ 0.01). Conclusion: The four-factor CPRD provides partial evidence of validity and reliability for assessing relevant psychological variables in the Colombian sports context; however, interpretations based on factor-level scores should be made with caution.