Abstract
BACKGROUND: The Olympic Games is one of the biggest sports events which should express and promote Olympic ideals. Aiming to generate more insights on the expression of Olympic Values, the Olympic Value Scale (OVS) was developed to assess how people perceive values in relation to the Olympic Games. The aim of the present study was to examine the validity and reliability of the Lithuanian version of OVS (LT-OVS). METHODS: The scale construct validity and reliability was tested using a sample of 365 university students (mean age 22.02, SD = 6.58; 49.9% male). After the evaluation of the scale structure, convergent and discriminant validity as well as reliability of the scale were evaluated by assessing composite reliability and average variance extracted (AVE), examining the square root of the AVE. For further validity analysis, associations between the LT-OVS factors and other variables were examined. RESULTS: The original OVS captures three dimensions, which are appreciation of diversity, friendly relations with others, and achievement in competition. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the original three-factor structure of the OVS. The internal consistency values for all three subscales of the LT-OVS were 0.80 and higher. Convergent and discriminant validity criterions were met. Relations between the LT-OVS dimensions and attitudes towards fair play and Olympic Games were also revealed and discussed. CONCLUSIONS: This study makes a contribution by confirming the validity of the LT-OVS and encouraging future adaptation of it into other cultures and research on Olympic Values.