PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES OF THE CARING CLIMATE SCALE IN A PHYSICAL ACTIVITY SETTING

Scholars have emphasized the importance of creating a caring environment in physical activity settings. Given that there is currently no measure of a caring environment in the physical domain, the purpose of these two studies was to develop the Caring Climate Scale (CCS) and examine its psychometric properties. A caring climate is defined in this paper as the extent to which individuals perceive a particular setting to be interpersonally inviting, safe, supportive and capable of providing the experience of being valued and respected. In Study 1, 353 children in a sport camp completed the CCS. Exploratory factor analyses revealed an internally consistent single factor, labelled caring climate, and supported the validity of the measure. In Study 2, 395 sport campers completed the CCS and assessments of the programmes future involvement and reported value. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed support for a 13-item version of the CCS.

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