Background: The aim of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Sport Imagery Questionnaire (SIQ), which assesses cognitive and motivational functions of imagery use.
Method: Participants were 361 athletes (234 male and 127 female) with a mean of age of 24.29 ± 7.76 yrs. Athletes were recruited from 31 sports across three competitive levels (i.e., regional, national, and international).
Results: Confirmatory factor analyses of the 30-item five factor SIQ model revealed adequate fit to the data, c²(378) = 694.6, CFI = .91, TLI = .90, RMSEA= .05, SRMR= .05. Multivariate analyses of variance revealed that athletes of higher competitive level reported significantly higher levels of cognitive general and cognitive specific imagery.
Conclusions: Overall, these results provide further support for the claim that the SIQ has a reproducible factor structure and internal consistency for measuring imagery use in Spanish athletes.