Psychological safety in sport: validation of the French Sport Psychological Safety Inventory (SPSI-FR)

IntroductionPsychological safety is increasingly recognized as a key determinant of athletes’ wellbeing and sustainable performance, particularly in youth sport. Despite growing interest in the construct, validated tools to measure it remain largely limited to English contexts. This study thus aimed to validate a French translation of the Sport Psychological Safety Inventory (SPSI).Materials and methodsA sample of 210 francophone elite youth athletes aged between 14 and 25 (Mage = 18.2, SD = 2.26; 68.6% female) from a wide range of sports completed an online survey in 2024.ResultsA confirmatory factor analysis, replicating the original three-factor structure of the SPSI (the factors being “mentally healthy environment”, “mental health literacy” and “low self-stigma”) showed good model fit (RMSEA = 0.076, SRMR = 0.034, CFI = 0.990, and TLI = 0.986) and strong internal consistency (α = 0.87; ω = 0.93). Furthermore, demonstrating good convergent and divergent validity, the scores of the French SPSI correlated positively with psychological wellbeing (r = 0.41) and quality of the coach, athlete relationship (r = 0.39), and negatively with interpersonal violence in sport (r = −0.22). Gender invariance was demonstrated, as neither scalar measurement nor latent mean scores differed between boys and girls.DiscussionThese findings support the SPSI-FR as a reliable and valid measure of psychological safety in francophone sport contexts for both girls and boys. Its robust psychometric properties enable its use to monitor athlete wellbeing, assess intervention outcomes, and examine associations between psychological safety, mental health, and other sport environment variables.