Reproducibility of the brief religious coping inventory with African athletes' sample using ordinal factor analytical approach

Edmond Kwesi Agormedah; Frank Quansah; Medina Srem-Sai; Francis Ankomah; John Elvis Hagan Jr; Thomas Schack

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1038202

Reproducibility of the brief religious coping inventory with African athletes' sample using ordinal factor analytical approach

Front Psychol. 2023 Jan 4:13:1038202. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1038202. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Edmond Kwesi Agormedah¹, Frank Quansah², Medina Srem-Sai³, Francis Ankomah^{4

5}, John Elvis Hagan Jr^{6

7}, Thomas Schack⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Business and Social Sciences Education, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana.
² Department of Educational Foundations, University of Education, Winneba, Ghana.
³ Department of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Sports, University of Education, Winneba, Ghana.
⁴ Department of Education and Psychology, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana.
⁵ Department of Education, SDA College of Education, Asokore-Koforidua, Ghana.
⁶ Department of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana.
⁷ Neurocognition and Action-Biomechanics-Research Group, Faculty of Psychology and Sports Science, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany.

Abstract

Background: Previous studies have revealed that religious coping strategy is common among athletes due to the stressful experiences before and during competitions as part of the mental preparations they go through, the uncertainty of sporting outcomes, and other organizational issues they encounter. This research assessed the reproducibility of the Brief Religious Coping (RCOPE) instrument in an African setting using athletes' samples from different countries. Particularly, the research sought to assess the (1) factor structure of Brief RCOPE with an African sample, (2) construct validity of the RCOPE measure, and (3) measurement invariance of the RCOPE instrument based on gender and nationality.

Methods: The study surveyed a convenient sample of 300 athletes, including 164 male and 136 female athletes, from 3 African countries (Benin, Ghana, and Nigeria) who participated in the 2018 West African University Games. The Brief RCOPE instrument was administered to the athletes for validation purposes before the competition. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted using the ordinal factor analytic approach.

Results: This validation study confirmed the two-factor dimension (positive and negative religious coping) of the Brief RCOPE measure. Further, all items for each of the dimensions of the inventory contributed significantly to the measure of the Brief RCOPE domains. The positive and negative religious coping dimensions contributed more than half of the variance of their respective indicators. Measurement invariance across gender and nationality was confirmed.

Conclusion: Sufficient evidence was gathered to support the interpretation and use of the Brief RCOPE measure. Coaches and sports psychologists could adopt the Brief RCOPE measure to understand the mental or thought patterns of religious athletes based on existential concerns or stress accrued from impending competitions to inform appropriate religious coping interventions. This notwithstanding, the Minimum Clinical Important Difference (MCID) of the Brief RCOPE should be further investigated to enhance the utility of the instrument for use in intervention-based studies.

Keywords: Africa; athletes; coping mechanisms; factor analysis; religion; reproducibility.