The measurement of exercise motives: Factorial validity and invariance across gender of a revised Exercise Motivations Inventory

Abstract

Objectives . The aim of this study was to further develop and refine the Exercise Motivations Inventory (EMI), a measure of individuals' reasons for exercising. Design . Confirmatory factor analytic procedures using LISREL were employed to test the hypothesized 14‐factor structure of the revised instrument (the EMI‐2) and the invariance of the factor structure across gender. Methods . Four hundred and twenty‐five civil servants completed the revised instrument. Analyses were conducted in three phases. Phase 1 involved detailed examination of the fit of the 14‐factors separately in order to detect and eliminate poor indicators. In Phase 2 each factor was paired with every other factor in order to detect and eliminate ambiguous items. In Phase 3 factors were grouped with conceptually related factors into five submodels and the fit and factorial invariance across gender of these submodels was tested. Results . Item elimination at Phases 1 and 2 led to the development of a set of internally consistent factors with strong indicators and good discriminant validity. Phase 3 gave further evidence for the convergent and discriminant validity of the items and factors and strong support for the invariance of the factor structure across gender. Conclusions . The EMI‐2 is a factorially valid means of assessing a broad range of exercise participation motives in adult males and females, applicable to both exercisers and non‐exercisers.