A Preliminary Psychometric Investigation of a Chinese Version of Athlete Engagement Questionnaire (AEQ)

Abstract

Athlete engagement is one of the key indicators of athletes' positive psychology. It plays a crucial role in coping with burnout and disengagement, creating a flow experience, and improving their competitive ability and performance. In the last two decades, a mountain of literature has focused on engagement in different research settings. In the world of sports, the Athlete Engagement Questionnaire (AEQ) has been proven to be a reliable instrument to access athletes' engagement at both amateur and elite levels. The aim of this study is to investigate the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of AEQ. The original English athlete engagement questionnaire was translated into Chinese using the method of back-translation for data collection. Subsequently, 379 samples were performed for data analysis, mainly focusing on confirmatory factor analysis to examine the four-factor and second-order factor structures of 16 items measuring athlete engagement. The results reproduced four components of AEQ, which included a total of 16 items. The instrument demonstrated acceptable composite reliability (.887 to .905) and convergent validity (> 0.5), except that the discriminant validity was slightly insufficient. The results showed that the Chinese version of AEQ as a second-order factor structure is better than the four-factor structure, that is, athlete engagement as an overarching construct composed of four factors: confidence, dedication, enthusiasm, and vigor. The findings offer a useful and reliable instrument for athlete engagement, which helps researchers better capture the experience and engagement of athletes in the Chinese sports context.