Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Educ.
Sec. Assessment, Testing and Applied Measurement
Volume 9 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2024.1414126

Measuring validity and reliability of the Italian version of Physical Activity Questionnaire for Older Children in overweight and obese children

Provisionally accepted
Domenico Monacis Domenico Monacis 1*Sabrina Annoscia Sabrina Annoscia 2Dario Colella Dario Colella 3Pierpaolo Limone Pierpaolo Limone 1
  • 1 Pegaso University, Naples, Italy
  • 2 University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy
  • 3 University of Salento, Lecce, Apulia, Italy

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Measure of daily physical activity (PA) represent one of the most important topics in the field of health promotion. In addition, self-efficacy and enjoyment are significant factors that can foster adherence to physical activity during lifetimes. The present study aims to assess validity and reliability of Physical Activity Questionnaire for Older Children -Italian version (PAQ-C-It) in a sample of normal weight, overweight and obese children. Three study has been conducted to assess (1) general characteristics of PAQ-C-It, (2) model fit and construct validity between PA, self-efficacy and enjoyment, and (3) reliability and construct validity of PAQ-C-It in normal weight, overweight and obese children. The sample involves a total of 914, 500 and 600 children attending first grade of secondary school (age= 11-13 yrs.), in the first, second and third study, respectively. Children were asked to respond to 3 scales: Physical Activity Questionnaire for Older Children (PAQ-C-It), the Perceived Physical Ability Scale (PPAS) and Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale (PACES). Then explorative and confirmatory factor analysis were conducted to assess validity and reliability of the PAQ-C-It by relating results with those of the other scales. Analysis showed acceptable value and interconsistency of items for the subscales (α > 0.7), as well as the Average Variance Extracted (> 0.5) in both normal weight, overweight and obese children. Results of the present study shows that PAQ-C-It can be applied in the field of physical activity to measure adherence to physical activity and healthy behaviors. Moreover, self-efficacy and enjoyment are significant factor that can best promote adherence to PA. The present study can extend our knowledge about PAQ-C-It and open new research field for driving interventions aimed at reducing sedentary behavior and improving PA in overweight and obese children.

    Keywords: physical activity1, self-efficacy2, enjoyment3, Obesity4, children5 Nessuna sottolineatura, Colore carattere: Automatico

    Received: 08 Apr 2024; Accepted: 21 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Monacis, Annoscia, Colella and Limone. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Domenico Monacis, Pegaso University, Naples, Italy

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.