The gender essentialist beliefs towards girls in sport scale: Turkish adaptation and psychometric properties

Despite evidence challenging the notion of fixed, biologically based athletic differences between girls and boys, gender essentialist beliefs persist among sport coaches. Such beliefs sustain a binary and hierarchical view of gender that can shape girls’ development, participation, and enjoyment in sport. A sport-specific instrument for assessing these beliefs has recently been developed, but no equivalent measure has been available for Turkish coaching contexts. The aim of the present study was therefore to adapt the Gender Essentialist Beliefs Towards Girls in Sport Scale (GEGS) into Turkish and to examine its psychometric properties. The scale was translated and culturally adapted following established cross-cultural guidelines and was assessed with 311 athletic coaches (187 men, 124 women). Confirmatory factor analysis using a robust diagonally weighted least squares estimator supported a single-factor structure for an 18-item version, with good fit after two weakly performing items were removed and a small number of theoretically defensible residual correlations were freed (χ 2 /df = 2.29, CFI = .965, TLI = .959, GFI = .971, RMSEA = .065, SRMR = .080). The scale showed high internal consistency (Cronbach's α = .89; McDonald's ω = .91) and showed metric invariance across coach gender, with a further constraint on residual variances producing no meaningful decrement in fit. Weak correlations with the coach–athlete relationship supported discriminant validity. Overall, the Turkish GEGS provides a sound and economical tool for research and coach education, and future research should replicate these findings across competitive levels, regions, and sports.