Validity evidence of the Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale for children and adolescents adapted for physical activity and sports settings

Aim: To investigate the validity evidence of the adapted Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale in physical activity and sports settings - BFNE-PAS. Methods: Participants included 721 children and adolescents (376 girls and 345 boys), 10 to -14-year-olds (total sample Mage = 12.1, SD = 1.3) from Brazil. Results: Exploratory factorial analysis confirmed the unidimensionality of the scale. Confirmatory factorial analysis showed adequate indexes (RMSEA = 0.05, [90% C.I. = 0.04 to 0.06], CFI = 0.98 TLI = 0.98). Network analyses indicate the highest influence of the item: “afraid to expose failures when practicing physical exercises” and/or participating in games and play in physical education classes” upon all others. The polychoric alpha showed adequate internal consistency (total scale: α = 0.86; items: α values > 0.84). The intraclass coefficient correlation showed strong reliability test-retest (ICC > 0.90). Conclusion: BFNE-PAS showed adequate validity evidence in Brazilian children.