Preliminary Validation of an Arabic Version of the Sport Motivation Scale ( SMS-28 )

This study aims to validate the Arabic version of the Sport Motivation Scale (SMS-28). SMS-28 is the English version of the French-Canadian scale l’Echelle de Motivation Dans Les Sport, which is based on the self-determination theory. The scale can reliably and validly measure the different forms of motivation toward sport. It consists of different subscales of intrinsic motivation (IM-to know, IM-to accomplish, IM-to experience), extrinsic motivation (identified regulation, introjected regulation, external regulation) and amotivation. The Arabic version of the scale was translated using the transcultural translation procedure. The final script of the translated scale was distributed to a sample of participants, which consists of a group of 208 students at the Faculty of Physical Education at the University of Jordan. The students were randomly selected and completed the scale voluntarily. Analytical analysis including factor analysis, Cronbach Alpha and Pearson correlation analysis were conducted. Results of the factor analysis reflected the validity of the scale, Cronbach Alpha showed adequate levels of internal consistency, while correlation values between the subscales were acceptable and reflected the motivation continuum suggested by the self-determination theory. Thus, an Arabic version of the sport motivation scale has emerged. Future studies using the Arabic version of the scale are encouraged.


Introduction
Motivation can be defined as the direction and intensity of effort.The direction of effort refers to whether an individual seeks out, approaches, or is attracted to certain situations.The intensity of effort refers to how much effort a person puts forth in a particular situation (Weinberg & Gould, 2011).
Motivation is a central and highly valued issue in the field of psychology.It plays an active role in sports.It has always been a concern to those who are involved in mobilizing others to act and achieve, such as managers, teachers, coaches and parents (Ryan & Deci, 2000;Martens & Webber, 2002).Motivation may arise when people value an activity and are personally committed to it.Motivation may also be driven by rewards or as a result of fear that one's actions are being monitored.Furthermore, it is imperative that coaches adopt a motivational climate avoiding verbally aggressive behaviors in order to increase their athletes' intrinsic motivation (Bekiari, Perkos, & Gerodimos, 2015).
Self-Determination Theory (SDT) is a formal theory of motivation that uses an organismic dialectical approach.It begins with the assumption that people are active human beings, with high potentials toward growing, mastering ambient challenges, and integrating new experiences into a coherent sense of self.Natural developmental tendencies require social support.(SDT) defines intrinsic and varied extrinsic sources of motivation, and gives a description of the respective roles of intrinsic and types of extrinsic motivation in cognitive and social development.Individual differences are reflected on the individual's experience of autonomy, competence, and relatedness which are critical in education, arts, sport, and many other domains (Ryan & Deci, 2000;Ryan, Williams, Patrick & Deci, 2009).
SDT allows better understanding of human processes in different areas (education, work, leisure activities, parenting, etc.), in addition to guiding applications and interventions to improve human condition (Vallerand, Pelletier, & Koestner, 2008).
According to SDT, there are many activities in which one can find intrinsic interests, yet a person will gravitate towards certain activities and avoid others.Therefore, SDT argues that only activities that satisfy certain basic psychological needs will be experienced as interests and be intrinsically motivated (Ryan et al., 2009).
Cognitive Evaluation Theory (CET) is a sub-theory of the (SDT).It specifically addresses the effects of social contexts on intrinsic motivation, while Organismic Integration Theory (OIT) addresses the topic of extrinsic motivation in its various forms.According to the (OIT); subtypes of extrinsic motivation are seen as falling along a continuum of internalization.The more internalized the extrinsic motivation is, the more autonomous the person will be when performing an action (Ryan & Deci, n. d.).Deci and Ryan (1999) have discussed education in their motivational approach.Different types of motivation were related to important psychological consequences (e.g., learning, performance), in addition to the role the theory plays in identifying determinants intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.Thus, a motivation scale in education was found, which speculated that behavior can be intrinsically motivated, extrinsically motivated, or amotivated.This approach appeared relevant to the field of sports (Ryan & Deci, n. d.;Vallerand, Blais, Brière, & Pelletier, 1989;Vallerand et al., 2008).
In order to study the different relations between determinants, motivation, and consequences in the sport domain, it was necessary to have an instrument that can reliably and validly measure the different forms of motivation toward sport.Existing measures of intrinsic and/or extrinsic sport motivation present conceptual problems and do not assess all seven constructs proposed by the SDT theory.SDT characterizes a broad framework for the study of human motivation and personality.Research has applied SDT in many domains including sport and physical activity (Brière, Vallerand, Blais, & Pelletier, 1995;Pelletier, Fortier, Vallerand, Tuson, Briere, & Blais, 1995;Ryan & Deci, 2000).Briere et al. (1995) developed and validated the "l'Echelle de Motivation dans les Sports (EMS) "in French, a scale of motivation that measures the different forms of motivation outlined in Deci and Ryan's theory.Pelletier et al. (1995) translated the EMS into English then validated it, they named it "Sport Motivation Scale (SMS-28)".The scale is considered to be the most common scale to measure motivation proposed by SDT in the sport context (Candela, Zucchetti, & Villosio, 2014;Ntoumanis, 2001).At a later date, the scale was translated into different languages such as: Greek (Doganis, 2000), Spanish (Núñez, Martín-Albo, Navarro & González, 2006), German (Burtscher, Furtner, Sachse, & Burtscher 2011), Brazilian Portuguese (Filho, Andrade, Miranda, Nunez, Martin-Albo, & Ribas, 2010) and Italian (Candela et al., 2014), in addition to the previously mentioned English translation.All translations were measured for their validity and consistency.Afterwards, several studies using these translated versions were conducted.
The SMS-28 scale consists of seven subscales, each of which includes four items.The scale assesses the three different types of motivation: Intrinsic Motivation, Extrinsic Motivation and Amotivation; Intrinsic motivation (IM ) is reflected in the scale through three subscales: IM -To Know: engaging in an activity for the pleasure and the satisfaction that one experiences while learning, exploring, or trying to understand something new.
IM -To Accomplish: engaging in an activity for the pleasure and satisfaction experienced when one attempts to accomplish or create something, such as trying to master certain difficult training techniques in order to experience personal satisfaction.
IM -To Experience: engaging in an activity in order to experience stimulating sensations (e.g., sensory pleasure, aesthetic experiences, as well as fun and excitement) derived from one's engagement in the activity (Weinberg & Gould, 2011).
Extrinsic motivation (EM) is also reflected in the scale through three subscales: Identification Regulation: to feel that involvement in sports contributes in part to one's growth and development as a person), Introjection Regulation: to feel the pressure of needing to be in good shape for aesthetic reasons, and feel embarrassed or ashamed of not being in top form.
External Regulation: participating in sport in order to receive praise from one's coach or to be urged to do so by one's parents are actions motivated by external regulation.In this case, the sport is performed not for fun but to obtain rewards (e.g., praise) or to avoid negative consequences (e.g., criticisms from parents) (Deci & Ryan, 1985;Ntoumanis, 2001).Amotivation: individuals who do not perceive contingencies between their actions and the outcomes of their actions.They experience feelings of incompetence and lack of control (Deci & Ryan, 1985).They are neither intrinsically motivated nor extrinsically motivated.When athletes are in such a state, they no longer identify any good reasons for continuing to train.Eventually, they may even decide to stop practicing their sport.
According to the first version of the SMS-28 scale in French, and all the translated scales that followed, motivation was considered the incentive behind participating and engaging in an activity (Deci & Ryan, 1985).The SMS-28 scale answered the question of "Why do you practice your sport?"The answers to the question of the scale were rated on a seven point Likert type scale from (1) (Does not correspond at all) to (7) (corresponds exactly), with a mid point of ( 4) for (corresponds moderately).In light of the importance of conducting research on sport motivation and given that no existing scale adequately assesses intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and amotivation toward sport in the Arabic language, there emerged a need for an instrument that is based on a valid theoretical conceptualization; that is, a scale to assess motivation from a sound theoretical perspective.The SMS-28 scale was chosen to fulfill the purpose of the study.
The purpose of this study was to: (i) to translate the SMS -28 scale into the Arabic language and (ii) to validate the translated Arabic version of the SMS -28.

Translation of the SMS Scale to Arabic
The SMS scale was translated into the Arabic language using the transcultural translation procedure (Parallel back -translation procedure) used in similar studies (Burtscher et al., 2011;Candela et al., 2014;Filho et al., 2010;Núñez et al., 2006;Pelletier et al., 1995).The English version of the scale was translated to Arabic by a bilingual individual.Then the Arabic script was translated back into English by another bilingual individual without knowing the original scale.The previous procedure was repeated once again with the help of two different bilingual individuals.Afterwards the Arabic version was evaluated by a specialist in order to add his final input.Thus the final version of the Arabic SMS scale was ready to be distributed to the participants in the study and was validated later on (see Appendix1).

Participants
The sample of the study was composed of a total of 208 students.It included approximately 20% of the total number of undergraduate students of the Faculty of Physical Education at the University of Jordan.The sample was chosen randomly.

Procedure
The Arabic version of the SMS-28 scale answered the question of "Why do you practice your sport?".The scale reflected three main motivation categories: intrinsic motivation (IM), extrinsic motivation (EM) and amotivation.The scale consisted of 28 Items structured in seven subscales: IM -to know, IM -to accomplish, IM -to experience, identified regulation (EM), introjected regulation (EM), External Regulation (EM) and Amotivation.The answers of the scale's question were rated on a seven point Likert type scale from (1) (Does not correspond at all) to (7) (corresponds exactly), with a mid point of ( 4) for (corresponds moderately).
IM -To know included items no.2,4,23,27, which are respectively: ("For the pleasure of knowing more about the sport that I practice"; "For the pleasure of discovering new training techniques"; "For the pleasure of learning new training techniques that I never tried before"; "For the pleasure of discovering new performance strategies").
IM -To accomplish includes items 8,12,15,20: ("Because it is absolutely necessary to do sports if one wants to be in shape"; "For the pleasure of improving some of my weak points"; "For the satisfaction I get when perfecting my skills"; "For the pleasure of executing certain difficult moves") respectively.IM -To experience includes items 1,13,18,25: ("For the pleasure of living exciting experiences"; "For the excitement I feel when I am really involved in the activity"; "For the intense emotions I feel doing a sport that I like"; "Because I like the feeling of being totally immersed in the activity".)respectively.
Identified regulation includes items 7,11,17,24: ("Because, in my opinion, it is one of the best ways to meet people"; "Because it is one of the best ways I have chosen to develop myself in other aspects"; "Because it is a good way to learn lots of things that can be useful in other areas of my life"; "Because it is one of the best ways to maintain good relationships with my friends") respectively.
Introjected regulation includes items 9,14,21,26: ("Because it is absolutely necessary to do sports if one wants to be in shape"; "Because I must do sports to feel good about myself"; "Because I would feel bad if I was not taking time to do it"; "Because I must do sports regularly") respectively.
External regulation includes items 6,10,16,22: ("Because this would make the people I know think highly of me"; "For the prestige of being an athlete"; "Because people around me believe it is important to be in shape"; "To show others how good I am at my sport") respectively.Amotivation includes items 3,5,19,28: ("I used to have good reasons for doing sport, but now I am asking myself if I should continue doing it"; "I don't know anymore; I think I am incapable of succeeding in this sport"; "It is not clear to me anymore; I don't really think that I don't belong in the sport world"; "I often ask myself; do I seem capable of achieving the goals that I have set for myself?")respectively.

Data Collection
The Arabic version of the scale was distributed by the authors to the sample of the study.They were told that their contribution was totally voluntary and that it was for scientific research purposes.They were asked not to provide their names and were assured that all their information will remain strictly confidential.They were instructed to carefully read the items, check the answer that corresponded the most to them, and answer all items.

Statistical Analysis
The validation of the Arabic version included a principle component (an explanatory factor analysis) factor analysis with promax rotation for the seven subscales, a correlation matrix among the subscales and internal consistency for the subscales through internal analysis using Cronbach's coefficient alpha (Cronbach, 1951).Then, the data was analyzed using SPSS 14 for windows.

Skewness and Kurtosis
An initial analysis for examining normal distribution of the Arabic version of SMS-28 scale values was conducted.Table (1) shows the results of means, standard deviations, skewness and kurtosis for the motivation subscales.Skewness values between +2 and -2 are considered acceptable in order to prove normal distribution.(Elliott, Alan C., Woodward, Wayne A., c2007).Skewness values of our data ranged between 0.50 for the subscale amotivation and -0.52 for the subscale IM-to accomplish showed in table (1).Kurtosis values ranged between 0.40 for the external regulations and -0.88 for IM -to know subscale.These values suggest closeness to the normal curve.

Factor Analysis
A factor analysis using the principal components method with promax rotation was conducted using the SPSS editor.Table (2) illustrates the rotated factor loadings, the item code, the proposed scale for the item to belong to, the communalities and the item loadings on the factors being extracted.
Communalities reflect the sum of variance shared by an item among the factors being extracted.Typically, a minimum value of 0.40 is acceptable (Kline, 1994).Clearly, the minimum communality value observed was 0.414 for item b2: "For the pleasure of knowing more about the sport that I practice".
The rotated factor matrix, which reflects how the items are weighted for each factor expresses the standardized beta coefficients between the items and the factor.Possible values range from -1 to +1 (SAS., 2015).Factor loadings reveal the items' contribution to the meaning of each factor.High loadings provide meaning and interpretation of factors.Items loaded differently in several factors.A cutoff of 0.3 was chosen to accept the loading according to literature (Elliott et al., c2007).Amotivation 0.562 0.683 F1-k = to know, F2-e = to experience, F3-a = to accomplish, F4-id = identified regulation, F5-in = introjected regulation, F6-ex = external regulation, F7Am= amotivation.
Eigenvalue (latent root) is one of the critical matters that should be considered in factor analysis.It expresses the loadings sums of a factor and helps to decide the number of factors that will be included in the scale.Kaiser suggested that any factor in order to be acceptable should have an Eigenvalue of 1.00 or greater (reference).Table (3) reflects; (1) the Eigenvalues of each factor extracted.According to the results, all seven factors being extracted were accepted.The least Eigenvalue obtained was 2.33 for factor no. 4 Identified Regulation.( 2) The explained variance.The more the explained value is, the more the items reflect that factor.The results show that factor no.3 (IM -To Accomplish) satisfies the larger variance followed by the factor no.1 (IM -To Know) and so on to the last factor.Explained variance of all factors was 59.0%.(3)The Kaiser -Meyer -Olkin (KMO) measures data fitting adequacy to factor analysis.This measure varies between 0 and 1, and the values closer to 1 are considered the better (SAS., 2015).Our KMO test value was 0.858.Thus, current data fitting to factor analysis in this study is considered to be adequate.Most of the correlations were between moderate (0.30 -0.69) and high (0.70 or greater).Correlations between the Intrinsic Motivation and its subscales were strong 0.88.Likewise, correlations between the Extrinsic Motivation and its subscales were also relatively high 0.78.The correlations between Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation were found to be strong 0.73.The correlations between Amotivation and the other Motivation scales were negative and almost weak.-0.34, -0.21 were the correlations between Amotivation and Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation s respectively.All the probability values related to the correlation values were statistically significant at (0.05 and 0.01) levels.
Table ( 4) also shows the internal consistency of each motivation subscale (on diagonal).It was assessed using cronbach alpha approach for internal consistency.For this type of internal consistency value of (0.60) or greater is considered to be a good cutoff (Cronbach, 1951).Values revealed suggest a very good and acceptable internal consistency level.The highest value of internal consistency was 0.87 for the Intrinsic Motivation.The minimum value obtained was 0.61 for the Amotivation, a value of 0.57 for the Introjected Regulation is considered below the cutoff but the researchers will accept it because it is too close.Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
Note: IM-To K =IM -to know, IM-To A = IM -to accomplish, IM-To E = IM -to experience, IM = Intrinsic Motivation, Id-R = identified regulation, Intro-R = introjected regulation, Ex-R = external regulation, EM = extrinsic motivation, Am = amotivation

Discussion
The issue of whether people adopt a certain behavior because they are driven by their own interests and values, or do it for external reasons not coming from within, is a matter of significance in every culture and represents a basic dimension by which people make sense of their own and others' behavior (Ryan & Deci, 2000).
The aim of the study was to translate and validate the Arabic version of the SMS -28 scale of motivation.Using the factor analysis has helped to reduce the large number of the scale's items to a more manageable number of factors.Seven factors emerged; these were the same number of the original scales' factors.Each of the 28 items loaded and satisfied several factors at the same time.The authors chose the items that fulfilled the factors in the same way of the original scale, taking into consideration the cutoff of 0.30 recommended by literature as mentioned above.However, items no. 4, 17 and 26 had loaded differently than SMS 28.For example, item no. 4 "For the pleasure of discovering new training techniques." was supposed to load in factor no. 1 IM -to know.Instead it loaded in factor no. 2 IM -to accomplish.The authors' explanation is that the sample might have been confused when answering this question.The surveyed students might have regarded discovering new training technique as an accomplishment by itself rather than having the opportunity to learn new techniques.Also item no.17 "Because it is a good way to learn lots of things that can be useful in other areas of my life", was supposed to load in factor no. 4 identified regulation.Instead it loaded in factor no.3 IM -to experience.Again, the sample might have figured that they practice the sport because they learn lots of things and transfer their learning into life experiences, rather than considering learning as a good opportunity to experience stimulations.As a matter of fact, the item might be somehow confusing even from the point of view of the authors.The authors agree with the sample that this item might express both IM -to experience and Identified regulations (EM).Thus, the authors suggested moving both items no.4 and no.17 to the factors where they belong in the original version.
As for the Item 26 "Because I must do sports regularly", it was supposed to load in factor no. 5 introjected regulation.Instead it loaded in factor no. 1 IM -to know.The authors believe that such loading does not make any sense and it is far from being related to the intrinsic motivation factor "to know".The reason might be that the sample misunderstood the phrase due to translation errors or that the phrase did not express any of their motivations.Thus, the authors suggested omitting item 26 from the Arabic version of the SMS-28 scale.
Although internal consistency (reliability) values of the subscales were relatively low compared to similar studies, they were still accepted.The higher value was for the Intrinsic Motivation subscales and the lower was for the external regulation.The authors attribute such low values to the sample size.
Correlation results have reflected a strong connection between the Intrinsic Motivation subscales 0.88 and moderate correlation values 0.76 in average in the Extrinsic Motivation subscales.The correlation values of the subscales have reflected the self-determination continuum suggested by Deci and Ryan in 1985.Correlation values started higher at the beginning of the continuum, then displayed lower to negative at the opposite end of the continuum -0.34.Overall, the present results are in agreement with those obtained from previous similar studies; the Greek (Doganis, 2000), Spanish (Núñez, Martín-Albo, Navarro & González, 2006), German (Burtscher, Furtner, Sachse & Burtscher 2011), Brazilian Portuguese (Filho, Andrade, Miranda, Nunez, Martin-Albo, & Ribas, 2010) and Italian (Candela et al., 2014), and provide support for the validation of the Arabic version.

Conclusions
The purpose of this study was to translate and validate the Arabic version of the SMS-28 motivation scale.Results from the factor analysis supported the seven factor structure of the Arabic SMS -28 scale and provided support for the construct validity.While internal consistency had demonstrated acceptable values for all subscales, correlations among the subscales revealed a simplex pattern confirming the self-determination continuum and the construct validity of the scale.All in all, the Arabic version of the

Table 1 .
Descriptive Indicators for the SMS -28 scale

Table 2 .
Communalities and factor loadings using principal components with "Promax rotation"

Table 3 .
Eigenvalue, Explained variance % and KMO test for the factors being extracted Correlations between each two subscales of the Motivation scales are presented diagonally in table (4) below.

Table 4 .
Pearson correlations among the motivation scales (below diagonal) and internal consistency values Cronbach alpa (on diagonal) scale in it's final version (see Appendix 2) is an adequate adaptation of the English version.Yet further psychometric evaluations