Construct Validity of the Profile of Mood States

Abstract

Objectives: The purpose of the present study was to extend the validation of the Profile of Mood States-Adolescents (POMS-A: Terry, P. C., Lane, A. M., Lane, H. J., & Keohane, L. (1999). Development and validation of a mood measure for adolescents. Journal of Sports Sciences, 17, 861-872) from adolescent to adult populations. Design: A strategy of assessing the invariance of the POMS-A factor structure among disparate samples and of testing relationships with concurrent measures was used. Methods: The POMS-A was administered to 2,549 participants from four samples: Adult athletes prior to competition (n = 621), adult student athletes in a classroom (n = 656), adolescent athletes prior to competition (n = 676), and adolescent students in a classroom (n = 596). A subset of 382 adult student athletes was used to test the criterion validity of the POMS-A. Results: Confirmatory factor analysis provided support for the factorial validity of a 24-item, six-factor model using both independent and multi-sample analyses. Relationships between POMS-A scores and previously validated measures, that were consistent with theoretical predictions, supported criterion validity. Conclusion: Supporting evidence was found that the psychometric integrity of the POMS-A extended from adolescent to adult populations.