Monitoring Stress and Recovery: Preliminary Latvian Version of the Recovery-Stress Questionnaire (RESTQ-Sport)

Objectives. The objectives of this study are to preliminary test and internal reliability of the Recovery-Stress Questionnaire for athletes (RESTQ-Sport) in Latvian, allowing optimization of their performance and minimization of risks of overtraining or burnout. Materials and Methods. Participants. A sample of Latvian athletes (n = 100) aged 18 to 25 from various sports completed the questionnaire. The REST-Q. The questionnaire contains 76 questions on 19 scales grouped into four dimensions. There are seven general stress (GS), five general recovery scales (GR), three sport stress (SS), and four sport recovery scales (SR). Answers are on a Likert scale from 0 (never) to 6 (always). Procedure. The English versions of the (RESTQ)-Sport were translated through a parallel back-translation procedure by six specialists, academic staff, and Riga Stradins University (RSU) experts. The Latvian version was pre-tested with a small group of athletes (n = 11), who were asked to provide feedback on the questionnaire. Statistical analysis. The analyses were conducted using Microsoft Office Excel and IBM SPSS version 26. The reliabilities of scales were assessed using Cronbach’s alpha analysis. Results and Conclusions. The scales achieved alpha coefficients equal to or higher than 0.70. The Latvian version of the REST-Q shows internal consistency. Kallus (1995) pointed out that the meaning of the generally formulated dimension could be different for athletes. The research represents a preliminary test, and further work is required to confirm factorial and external validity. (This research is carried out under the Post-doctoral Grant No. RSU/LSPA-PG-2024/1-0002 'Recovery strategies to improve the performance of martial arts athletes', of project No. 5.2.1.1.i.0/2/24/I/CFLA/005 RSU Internal and RSU with LSPA External Consolidation (financed by the European Union's Recovery and Resilience Mechanism and the budget of the Republic of Latvia)).