Psychometric Properties of the 10-item Athletic Mental Energy (AME-10): Construct Validity, Reliabilities, and Gender Invariance

Current research uses the 6-factor model, which includes motivation (enthusiasm for sport), confidence (belief in performance), concentration (focused attention), vigour (perceived vitality), tirelessness (lack of vitality), and calmness (absence of anxiety), 18-item Athletic Mental Energy Scale (AMES, Lu et al., 2018) to examine its influence on athletes’ cognition, behaviour, and emotion. However, two factors (i.e., vigour and tirelessness) in AMES are conceptually redundant and overlapping. We aimed to revise the AMES to improve its brevity. In Study 1, a 5-factor AMES (i.e., vigour, motivation, confidence, concentration, and calmness) was tested and analysed. In Study 2, we tested the gender invariance of the 5-factor AMES and examined nomological validity. In Study 3, we examined the test-retest reliability of the 5-factor AMES. Across these phases, the results showed that the 5-factor, 10-item AMES had an adequate factor structure, construct validity, reliability, and gender invariance. Future studies may utilise the 5-factor, 10-item AMES to examine its influence on athletes’ psychological and physical responses in field or laboratory settings. We further recommend that sports psychologists adopt the 5-factor, 10-item AMES.