Investigating the Factor Structure and Psychometric Properties of the Persian Version of the Lay Beliefs about Competition Scale

This study aimed to investigate the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Persian version of the lay beliefs about competition scale (Kesebir et al., 2019) in a group of Iranian high school students. For this purpose, 464 students of Evaz city, located in the south of Fars province, who were studying in the academic year of 2022-2023; they were selected Convenience sampling method. They responded to the lay beliefs about competition scale (Kesebir et al., 2019) and achievement goals questionnaire (Elliott et al., 2011). The content, construct, convergent and divergent validity of the mentioned scale were investigated using the opinion of educational psychology experts, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, correlation coefficients of component scores with related variables and correlation between scale components. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to investigate the reliability of the scale. Experts confirmed the representativeness of the scale items to measure the positive and negative lay beliefs about competition in the two-factor model presented by Kesebir et al. (2019). Exploratory factor analysis showed that there is a two-factor structure of lay beliefs about competition including positive and negative beliefs about competition among Iranian students. The lay beliefs about competition model test includes positive beliefs and negative beliefs confirming the two-factor structure of this scale in line with the main research. Also, the logical connection of the components of positive and negative lay beliefs about competition with the components of achievement goals indicates the convergent validity of this scale. The average correlation of two positive and negative components of the lay beliefs about competition confirms the divergent validity of this scale. In addition, Cronbach's alpha coefficients confirm the reliability of the scale. In total, the findings of the research show that the Persian version of the mentioned scale has suitable psychometric indicators for measuring positive and negative lay beliefs about competition in the group of Iranian high school students; and it has the necessary efficiency to measure the mentioned beliefs.