The Hungarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, and Spanish, adaptation of the Makarowski's Aggression Questionnaire for martial arts athletes

Abstract

Background and Study Aim: Studying aggression and aggressiveness among martial arts athletes allows for identifying aspects of the training process, important for the professional and personal development. Makarowski's Aggression Questionnaire has only been published in English in 2013. The aim of the current study is recommendation to researchers, coaches of various martial arts (combat sports) disciplines, physical education teachers, and sports psychologists with a measure of aggressiveness. Material and Methods: The Hungarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, and Spanish adaptation of Makarowski’s Aggression Questionnaire was used. The questionnaire measures the following dimensions of aggressiveness: “Go-ahead” (the athlete attacks, breaks obstacles, is courageous and see obstacles as challenges to be overcomed), “Foul play” (the athlete has no scruples, is willing to blame others in order to achieve his/ her goal or to block them, often in an unethical manner – for example, by pushing an opponent on the field) and “Assertiveness” (the athlete expresses his/ her opinion and emotions directly, in a courageous way and within appropriate boundaries - for example, a critical feedback to peers or to the coach). The questionnaire’s reliability and validity analyses on martial arts athletes from Hungary (n = 50), Latvia (n = 31), Lithuania (n = 51), Poland (n = 49), Romania, (n = 53), Russia (n = 55), Slovakia (n = 30) and Spain (n = 24) were made. Reliability was assessed using the Cronbach’s α internal consistency coefficient, which ranged from 0.67 to 0.85 for the individual subscales. The test’s internal structure was verified via confirmatory factor analysis. Results: The adapted versions of Makarowski’s Aggression Questionnaire have good psychometric properties and can be used in international studies. Also, single-factor analysis of variance highlighted that martial arts athletes from Spain achieved the highest mean on the Go-ahead subscale, martial arts athletes from Latvia achieved the highest mean on the Foul play subscale, while martial arts athletes from Poland obtained the highest values on the Assertiveness subscale. Considering the lowest Go-ahead scores, these were observed in martial arts athletes from Romania, the lowest Foul play scores - in martial arts athletes from Spain, and the lowest Assertiveness values – in martial arts athletes from Hungary. Conclusions: In accordance with the general methodological standards, the questionnaire can be used in coaching practice, as part of psychological skills training and in international research. The appendix includes Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Indian (Martahai and Hindi), Indonesian, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian (implicitely Moldavian), Russian, Slovak and Spanish versions of the Makarowski’s Aggression Questionnaire for martial arts athletes, together with the norms for both women and men