Assessing gender essentialist beliefs towards youth athletes: Development and preliminary validation of the gender essentialist beliefs towards girls in sport scale (GEGS)

Goorevich, Anna; Schneider, Kat; Boucher, Courtney; LaVoi, Nicole M.

Abstract

Despite evidence refuting the legitimacy of inherent and unchanging qualities and the existence of a gender sport continuum, a prevailing gender essentialist ideology persists among coaches. This ideology perpetuates the belief in a binary, hierarchical, and static structure of gender, which imparts higher cultural and social values to men's sport compared to women's and impacts girls’ development, participation, and enjoyment in sport. Some interventions have been proposed to address this issue; however, at present, no validated scale exists to assess intervention outcomes related to coaches’ gender essentialist beliefs. The aim of the current study was therefore to develop and validate the Gender Essentialist Beliefs Towards Girls in Sport Scale (GEGS), to assess gender essentialism among sport coaches. Content validity was judged by a panel of experts (N = 4) and through interviews with coaches (N = 5) across various sports and experience levels. Following initial item iteration, the GEGS was assessed with 633 coaches for reliability and validity. The final scale comprised 20 items and showed good reliability (internal consistency, test-retest reliability, inter-item and item-total correlations), validity (convergent validity, differentiation between known groups), and factor structure. We also found partial support for the discriminant validity of the GEGS. Overall, the GEGS provides a valuable tool for addressing gender essentialism in sport coaching and informing coach education programs. Future research should further validate the scale and explore its sensitivity to change in gender essentialist beliefs over time.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 3, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Feb 2, 2025
• Deposit Date: Feb 3, 2025
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 4, 2025
• Print ISSN: 1747-9541
• Electronic ISSN: 2048-397X
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/17479541241307935
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/13712958