Sport participation motivation in young adolescent girls: the role of friendship quality and self-concept.

This study examined the factor structure of the Sport Friendship Quality Scale (SFQS; Weiss and Smith, 1999) and compared two models in which (a) self-worth mediated the relationship between physical self/friendship quality and sport commitment and (b) friendship quality and physical self-perceptions directly predicted self-worth and sport commitment. Female team sport participants (N = 227) between the ages of 11 and 14 years completed measures of sport commitment, enjoyment, athletic competence, physical attractiveness, self-worth, and friendship qualities. A confirmatory factor analysis found an inadequate fit for the SFQS, mainly due to problems with the loyalty and intimacy subscale. Separating the loyalty and intimacy factor into two subscales provided an adequate fit. Examination of the two structural models indicated that both models provided an adequate overall fit but that self-worth only weakly predicted sport commitment, suggesting the mediator model was impractical. Friendship quality had a weak relationship with self-worth and sport commitment. Results are discussed in light of issues in measuring sport friendship quality and future directions in this developing field.