Psychometric validation of the Czech PLOC-R in high-school physical education

TL;DR

This study created a validated Czech version of a scale to measure motivation in high school physical education, improving its reliability and usefulness for future research.

Contribution

The study provides the first validated Czech adaptation of the PLOC-R scale for assessing motivation in physical education.

Findings

The Czech PLOC-R showed improved factorial validity after removing three items (CFI = 0.94, RMSEA = 0.06).

The scale demonstrated strict measurement invariance across gender and grade levels.

Internal consistency was acceptable for most subscales, though lower for external regulation (ω = 0.58).

Abstract

The Perceived Locus of Causality (PLOC) scale is widely used to assess motivation in physical education (PE), but no validated Czech version has been available. This study aimed to translate, adapt, and validate the revised PLOC (PLOC-R) in Czech high school students.

A total of 2,967 students (mean age = 16.62, SD = 1.18) completed the Czech-adapted PLOC-R along with measures of psychological need satisfaction and PE engagement. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) tested its five-factor structure, while exploratory analyses identified problematic items.

The initial model showed moderate fit, but removing three items resulted in better factorial validity of the scale (CFI = 0.94, RMSEA = 0.06). Internal consistency was acceptable (ω = 0.78–0.90), except for external regulation (ω = 0.58). The scale demonstrated strict measurement invariance across gender and grade, and correlations with external variables supported its validity.

This study provides the first validated Czech PLOC-R, enabling reliable assessment of PE motivation and facilitating cross-cultural comparisons.