French adaptation and validation of the Sport Motivation Scale-II (Echelle de Motivation dans les Sports-II)

We report on the development, the adaptation, the validation, and the utility of the French version of the revised Sport Motivation Scale (SMS-II), namely the EMS-II (Echelle de Motivation dans les Sports), a scale developed originally in English to measure the six motivation subtypes (intrinsic motivation, integrated, identified, introjected, and external regulation of extrinsic motivation, and amotivation) proposed by self-determination theory (SDT). Results from two studies with athletes (N= 506) from different sports indicated that the scale has good psychometric properties. Specifically, the results of the confirmatory factor analysis suggest that the scale holds an adequate structure consistent with the six types of motivation proposed by SDT, and that French and English athletes were invariant with regard to the structure of the six-factor scale. The results also indicated that the scale had sufficient discriminant and convergent validity, and Cronbach's alpha suggests that all subscales have adequate internal consistency. Finally, correlations between the subscales suggest evidence of a simplex pattern, which support the self-determination continuum within the SDT framework. Direction for future research and conceptual implications are discussed.