Development and Initial Validation of the Korean Effort and Reward Scale (ERS-K) for Use in Sport Contexts

Background: Applying Siegrist’s (1996) effort-reward imbalance model to athletes, the current study aimed to develop a measure that can evaluate athletes’ effort and reward, and verify its reliability and validity. Methods: The survey was conducted on 530 athletes from universities in Seoul, South Korea. Among the collected data, 276 datasets were used for exploratory factor analysis, 200 for confirmatory factor analysis, and 30 for test-retest reliability analysis; data from surveys that were incomplete or incorrectly answered were excluded. The initial questionnaire was completed based on prior research, expert meetings, and evaluation by the evaluation group. The collected data were subjected to question analysis, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, reliability analysis, and criterion-related validity analysis. Result: Four factors of the construct of effort were extracted: training strengthening efforts, interpersonal efforts, nutrition management efforts, and cognitive psychology strengthening efforts. Additionally, three factors of the construct of reward were extracted: future stability, social support, and positive growth. Thus. the effort measurement tool was finalized with 14 questions from four factors, and the reward measurement tool was finalized with 14 questions from three factors, with all items rated on a 5-point Likert scale. Conclusions: Siegrist’s efforts to measure job stress and athletes perceived efforts differed somewhat, but were found to be consistent with those reported for Australian occupational jockeys. In addition, athletes’ perceived rewards had similar results to those for Siegrist and Kathleen et al. studies. Based on this study, subsequent studies can more effectively determine whether the effort-reward imbalance model is applicable to athletes.