Validity and Reliability Study of the E-Sports Awareness Scale

The present study aims to develop a valid and reliable measurement tool for assessing the attitudes and behaviors of society and athletes with regard to e-sports awareness. The study population comprises volunteers residing in Istanbul who have played e-sports games for a minimum of one year and possess experience in this field. The sample comprises 179 volunteer participants, selected using the convenience sampling method. The survey technique was employed in the study, based on volunteerism, and the data collection method was carried out accordingly. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted using the IBM SPSS 25 and Lisrel 8.80 software packages. Prior to conducting the exploratory factor analysis, the suitability of the data for factor analysis was evaluated through the application of the KMO and Barlett tests, which yielded a KMO value of 0.862. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted to reveal the construct validity of the scale. The factor analysis yielded a scale comprising 10 items. In the factor analysis, the items were grouped under a single factor, with a total explained variance of 53.364% and an eigenvalue greater than 1. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) indicated that the value of χ²/sd, one of the fit indices of the model, was 1.43. Furthermore, the fit indices indicated a good fit with the single-factor structure of the scale. The Cronbach alpha value for the scale was determined to be 0.840. The items are rated on a 5-point Likert scale. The maximum score that can be obtained on the scale was identified as 50, while the minimum score is 10. In conclusion, it was established that the E-sports awareness scale, developed to assess awareness towards E-sports, is a valid and reliable measurement tool. The scale consists of 10 items. The maximum score that can be attained on the scale is 50, while the minimum score is 10. It is hypothesized that it is necessary to apply the scale developed for e-sports players to different sample groups to determine the social awareness towards e-sports. It would also be beneficial to test the validity and test-retest reliability of the scale by applying it to e-sports players in future studies.