Cross-cultural invariance of the basic psychological needs in exercise scale and need satisfaction latent mean differences among Greek, Spanish, Portuguese and Turkish samples

• BPNES invariance was examined across Greek, Spanish, Portuguese, and Turkish samples.
• BPNES scores were largely invariant at the configural, metric, and strong invariance level.
• BPNES scores were not invariant at the strict invariance level.

ObjectivesThe present study examined the extent to which scores from the Basic Psychological Needs in Exercise Scale are measurement invariant across Greek, Spanish, Portuguese, and Turkish samples of exercise participants.DesignA cross-sectional design wherein responses were analyzed from 504 Greek participants, 518 Spanish participants, 989 Portuguese participants, and 686 Turkish participants.MethodsData on exercise participants' need satisfaction were collected using the Basic Psychological Needs in Exercise Scale (Vlachopoulos & Michailidou, 2006) after back translation for the languages involved in the study.ResultsMulti-sample confirmatory factor analyses showed that BPNES scores were largely invariant at the configural, metric, and strong invariance levels, but not at the strict invariance level for Spanish, Portuguese, and Turkish samples compared to the Greek sample. Portuguese participants reported higher levels of satisfaction for all three needs compared to Greek participants, while for Spanish participants this was the case only for competence and relatedness. Turkish participants did not differ from Greek participants.ConclusionsThe present findings support valid cross-cultural comparisons at the latent variance/covariance level and the latent/observed mean level of the constructs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness using the BPNES.