The study of Partnership in Chinese DanceSport Couples

Oral Presentation

Abstract

^{Dancesport is a kind of male-female partner dancing. Its vital to understand Partnership between them so that athlete couples’ competitive performance can be effectively supported. However, there is a dearth of empirical research in the relationship between dancesport partnership and competitive dancing due to a lack of developmentally appropriate assessment tools.This multi-study paper outlines the development, content and construct validity of a novel, mixed-method tool to assess Chinese Dance Sport Partnership. The development of the PS-CDSC included 3 stages and data from four samples of athletes (N=914 total). In stage one, outlined in study one, PS-CDSC items were generated and then refined using feedback provided by academics, sport coaches, and athletes. In stage two, outlined in studies two and three, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and exploratory structural equation modelling techniques were used to examine the structure of PS-CDSC items. In stage three, outlined in study four, discriminant validity was assessed by estimating the nomological network of relations between test scores on the PS-CDSC. The result of this process was a 13-item five-factor instrument that shows evidence of good factorial validity. Based on these initial findings, the PS-CDSC provides the first valid and reliable way of measuring athlete-athlete relationship in sport. This study has taken a promising first step in developing a tool to comprehensively measure Chinese dance sport partnership.}