Comparison of Psychological Skills, Athlete’s Identity, and Habits of Physical Exercise of Students of Faculties of Sport in Four Balkan Countries

The goals of the research were to determine the construct validity and reliability of two psychological instruments (AIMS) and (PSICA) applied on samples of college sport students; the correlations between the students’ competition rank, years of engaging in sport, and level of physical exercise; the differences among the universities in different countries, as well as among students from different years of study. The stratified sample included students from six universities, in total 1498 female and male college sport students, with an average age of 20.35±1.76 years (males) and 20.14±1.55 years (females). Both psychological measuring instruments showed very satisfactory psychometric properties. Reliability is particularly high for males for AIMS, while the reliabilities for PSICA are mainly moderate to high and lower than for AIMS. The results could be explained in terms of cultural and organizational differences, and provide the information about directions in designing efficient programs for physical exercise.