Simon Rice|Courtney C. Walton|Vita Pilkington|Kate Gwyther|Lisa Olive|M. G. Lloyd|Alex Kountouris|Matt Butterworth|Matti Clements|Rosemary Purcell
Psychological safety in elite sport settings: a psychometric study of the Sport Psychological Safety Inventory
University of Melbourne|Orygen|Orygen|University of Melbourne|Orygen|University of Melbourne|Orygen|University of Melbourne|Deakin University|Orygen|Australian Sports Commission|Australian Sports Commission|La Trobe University|Australian Sports Commission|Australian Sports Commission|Orygen|University of Melbourne
effectively supporting mental health elite athletes coaches requires validated tools assess individuallevel factors organisationallevel influences aim study develop bespoke scale assessing perceived psychological safety within highperformance environments337 elite athletes m2412 years 238 elitelevel coaches highperformance support staff hpss m419 years identified via australian institute sport provided data across range mental health wellbeing domains exploratory factor analysis efa n169 athletes parallel analysis identified sport psychological safety inventory spsi factor structure confirmatory factor analysis cfa validated identified structure separate validation subsamples athletes n168 coacheshpss n238efa identified 11item 3factor spsi factors assessed domains mentally healthy environment mental health literacy low selfstigma scale items loaded strongly specific domain cfa model fit indices validated scale structure athletes coacheshpss internal consistency convergent divergent validity evident logistic regression indicated incrementally higher mentally healthy environment scores reduced likelihood athletes scoring moderate range general athletespecific distress stronger endorsement low selfstigma subscale reducing likelihood identified athletespecific distresspsychometric properties spsi support scale utility among athletes coacheshpss elite sports settings though psychometric efforts needed brief measure may support benchmarking efforts across elite sporting contexts improve mental health culture broader wellbeing among athletes coacheshpss