Clarification of situational interest construct in physical education

The purpose of this study was to clarify the situational interest construct by validating a new scale aligned with previous studies in educational psychology (Linnenbrinck-Garcia et al., 2010, 2013). Four stages were followed: (1) the development of a preliminary version based on the findings of a literature review and items’ selection, and a committee process validation; (2) a first study conducted on 312 secondary school students (Mage = 13.4, SD = 1.2) to establish the factor structure and construct reliability; (3) a second study based on 489 secondary school students (Mage = 13.9, SD = 1.6) to confirm the factor structure; and (4) a third study with 174 students (Mage = 14.5, SD = 1.1) to test the predictive validity of the scale with students’ achievement goals and the divergent validity with students’ perceived competence. The results demonstrated the psychometric properties of the scale which consisted in 12 items measuring three factors: triggering situational interest (four items), maintained situational interest-feeling (four items), and maintained situational interest-value (four items). This factor structure has the advantage to be aligned with the first two stages of the model of interest development (Hidi & Renninger, 2006).