Psychometric item evaluations of the Recovery-Stress Questionnaire for athletes

ObjectivesUsing an item-based analysis, the factor structure of the Recovery-Stress Questionnaire for Athletes (RESTQ-Sport) [Kellmann, M., & Kallus, K.W. (2001). Recovery-Stress Questionnaire for Athletes: User manual. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics] was assessed as a test of its validity. The RESTQ-Sport is a 76-item questionnaire that was developed to assess the physical and mental impact of training stress and to facilitate the formulation of strategies for the enhancement of recovery. According to [Kellmann, M., & Kallus, K.W. (2001). Recovery-Stress Questionnaire for Athletes: User manual. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics], two factors: Recovery and Stress, comprised the 12 General subscales and seven Sport subscales of the RESTQ-Sport.MethodsA total of 585 male and female athletes who train at a Canadian national sport center were recruited to complete the RESTQ-Sport. Maximum likelihood factor analyses were performed.ResultsThe results confirmed the two-factor structure proposed by Kellmann and Kallus for the Sport-Recovery/Stress Scale but disconfirmed this structure for the General-Recovery/Stress Scale. Item analysis further disconfirmed the two-factor structure for the General Scale and failed to confirm the 19 Subscales proposed by the authors on both of the General and Sport Scales.ConclusionsThese results are interpreted to suggest that while the questionnaire should not be considered to be a diagnostic tool for under-recovery states, the RESTQ-Sport does, nonetheless, still measure general parameters of training stress which can be tracked in recovery planning.