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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. Sport Psychology
Volume 6 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fspor.2024.1508602

Operationalization of the Social Cognitive Theory to Explain and Predict Physical Activity in Germany: A Scale Development

Provisionally accepted
Viktoria S. Egele Viktoria S. Egele *Robin Stark Robin Stark
  • Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Social Cognitive Theory is one of the most prominent psychological theories regarding human behavior. Previous research tested and confirmed parts of the theory concerning the explanatory and predictive value of the theory, both in specific populations and in selected domains of physical activity. However, the value of this research is limited as researchers often use their own item sets rather than validated scales. Therefore, comparability of the studies is restricted and the quality of the individual findings can often not be conclusively assessed as psychometric properties of the measurement are unclear. The goal of this research was to develop a parsimonious, reliable, and valid questionnaire to assess the elements of SCT in the context of physical activity. In total, 90 items were developed for the four factors of SCT, which were then examined by exploratory factor analysis and reduced to 18 items in total. Cross-validation was successful. Internal consistency was good for the four subscales, test-retest reliability was satisfactory, as were indicators for convergent and divergent validity. Thus, a short, reliable, and valid instrument was developed intended for use in the general adult population in Germany for research on theoretical assumptions and interventions based on Social Cognitive Theory.

    Keywords: scale, self-efficacy, Measurement, assessment, social cognitive theory, physical activity

    Received: 09 Oct 2024; Accepted: 14 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Egele and Stark. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Viktoria S. Egele, Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany

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