Background The Injury-Psychological Readiness to Return to Sport (I-PRRS) scale has demonstrated acceptable reliability and validity in American English, Dutch, Italian, Persian, French, Spanish, and Portuguese, however, its adaptation to the Chinese remains unexplored. Therefore, this study aimed to translate the I-PRRS scale into Chinese (I-PRRS-Ch) and validate its cross-cultural adaptation. Methods This study employed a cross-cultural adaptation and psychometric testing design to translate and validate the Chinese version of the I-PRRS (I-PRRS-Ch). The translation process followed established guidelines, including forward and backward translation by bilingual experts, followed by an expert panel review to ensure content validity. A pilot study was conducted to assess face validity and identify any potential translation or cultural adaptation issues. The floor and ceiling effects, test-retest reliability, composite reliability, convergent validity, and concurrent validity were assessed to evaluate the translated questionnaire`s reliability and validity. To evaluate the reliability of the I-PRRS-Ch, test-retest reliability was employed using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC 3,1). Composite reliability and convergent validity were assessed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The Chinese version of the Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia (SC-TSK) was used to measure the concurrent validity of the I-PRRS-Ch. Results A total of 183 injured athletes (male: n = 148, female: n = 35; age: Mean = 20.04, SD = 3) from various sports, including track and field, football, basketball, martial arts, volleyball, and gymnastics, participated in this study. Preliminary analysis showed no floor or ceiling effects were detected for the I-PRRS-Ch. Test-retest reliability of the I-PRRS-Ch scale was excellent (ICC = 0.98). Internal consistency measures included a Cronbach`s alpha value of 0.85 and a composite reliability of 0.89, indicating good reliability. Convergent validity was established with an average variance extracted of 0.57. Concurrent validity was supported by a moderate inverse correlation (r = -.42) between the I-PRRS-Ch scale and the SC-TSK, validating the psychological readiness measure concerning kinesiophobia. Conclusions The I-PRRS-Ch scale is a reliable and valid tool that provides a screening mechanism to identify psychological barriers in Chinese athletes before returning to sport.
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