Sportive Agoraphobia: Scale Development and Validation

Murat Celebi¹Neslihan Nur Pehlivan²Mustafa Arıcı³Mert Ayrancı³Mehmet Ismail Tosun^4*Abdussamet EFDAL⁵Murat Sarikabak⁶Milan Markovic⁷

• ¹Faculty of Sport Sciences, Department of Physical Education and Sports, Bartın University, Bartın, Türkiye
• ²Health Services Vocational School, Department of Therapy and Rehabilitation, Hitit University, Çorum, Türkiye
• ³Faculty of Sport Sciences, Department of Recreation, Hitit University, Çorum, Türkiye
• ⁴Faculty of Sport Sciences, Department of Physical Education and Sport, Hitit University, Çorum, Türkiye
• ⁵Health Services Vocational School, Department of Environmental Protection Technologies, Hitit University,, Çorum, Türkiye
• ⁶Faculty of Sport Sciences, Department of Physical Education and Sports, Bartın University,, Bartın, Türkiye
• ⁷Faculty of Sport and Physical Education, University of Priština–Kosovska Mitrovica, Leposavić, Serbia

The present study aimed to develop a valid and reliable instrument, the Sportive Agoraphobia Scale (SAS) to measure individuals' anxiety and avoidance behaviors related to social visibility, body image, and evaluative concerns in physical activity settings. Conducted within the general survey model, data were collected from 352 participants in four provinces of Türkiye. The scale development followed the eight-step framework proposed by DeVellis and Thorpe (2021). An initial pool of 30 items was reduced to 24 based on expert feedback, and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) identified a three-factor structure: (1) Psychosocial Participation Anxiety, (2) Social Evaluation Anxiety, and (3) Body Image–Based Anxiety. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted after removing four items with low factor loadings, resulting in a final 19-item version of the scale. Fit indices indicated a good model fit [χ²/df = 2.688, RMSEA = .069, CFI = .946, IFI = .946, NFI = .917]. Internal consistency values were high for the total scale (α = .95) and across subdimensions (Factor I: α = .93, Factor II: α = .85, Factor III: α = .87). The findings demonstrate that the Sportive Agoraphobia Scale is a psychometrically sound tool for assessing the multidimensional nature of anxiety stemming from social presence, fear of negative evaluation, and appearance-based concerns in exercise environments. The SAS offers practical implications for researchers, sport psychologists, and intervention designers aiming to understand and mitigate psychological anxiety to physical activity participation.