Climbing anxiety scale (CAS-20): Preliminary development and validation

• Published in: Psychology of sport and exercise 2024-07, Vol.73, p.102635, Article 102635
• Main Authors: Ionel, Maria Stefania, Ion, Andrei, Iliescu, Dragos, Visu-Petra, Laura
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Anxiety - diagnosis; Anxiety - psychology; Athletic Performance - psychology; Factor Analysis, Statistical; Female; Humans; Male; Measurement; Middle Aged; Mountaineering - psychology; Psychometrics - methods; Reproducibility of Results; Rock-climbing; Scale development; Self Efficacy; Sport anxiety; Surveys and Questionnaires; Validation; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1469-0292; 1878-5476; 1878-5476
• DOI: 10.1016/j.psychsport.2024.102635

Anxiety has been the primary focus of emotion research in sport psychology. Most of the existing anxiety measures focus on the competition related anxiety. Little is known about the way in which anxiety affects athletic outcomes in extreme sports. We contribute to the literature on anxiety in extreme sports by: (1) developing and providing a preliminary validation for a novel, theoretically anchored sport climbing inventory, Climbing Anxiety Scale (CAS-20), among an international sample of rock-climbers (N = 153); and (2) providing preliminary evidence on its factorial and criterion-related validity. Our investigation includes two phases. The first phase (6 clinical and sport psychology experts) included the development and expert review of a climbing specific anxiety scale. The second phase (N = 153) offers preliminary evidence pertaining to the measure’s reliability, factorial, convergent and criterion related validity. Factorial validity was investigated by deploying a series of confirmatory factorial analyses. Convergent and discriminatory validity were examined by comparing the scale’s associations with a general anxiety measure, a sport anxiety measure, as well as climbing self-efficacy. Criterion-related validity was estimated by examining its relationship with rock-climbing performance. We contribute to the general domain of sport and athletic research by developing a sport-specific anxiety measure, investigating whether and how anxiety comes into play in rock-climbing, a high-risk sport. This scale can be used for assessing anxiety in climbing and monitoring the impact of an interventions designed to reduce these symptoms. •Climbing Anxiety Scale (CAS-20) is a new development measure for rock-climbing.•We address in which way anxiety affects athletic outcomes in extreme sports.•Development and expert review of a climbing specific anxiety scale in Phase 1.•CAS’ reliability, factorial, convergent and criterion related validity in Phase 2.•CAS helps practitioners track anxiety reduction interventions for climbers at risk.