Dataset Information

Validation of a maternal questionnaire on correlates of physical activity in preschool children.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Valid measures of physical activity correlates in preschool children are lacking. This study aimed to assess the validity, factor structure and internal consistency of a maternal questionnaire on potential correlates of four-year-old children's physical activity.

Methods

The questionnaire was designed to measure the following constructs: child personal factors; parental support and self-efficacy for providing support; parental rules and restrictions; maternal attitudes and perceptions; maternal behaviour; barriers to physical activity; and the home and local environments. Two separate studies were conducted. Study I included 24 mothers of four-year-old children who completed the questionnaire then participated in a telephone interview covering similar items to the questionnaire. To assess validity, the agreement between interview and questionnaire responses was assessed using Cohen's kappa and percentage agreement. Study II involved 398 mothers of four-year-old children participating in the Southampton Women's Survey. In this study, principal components analysis was used to explore the factor structure of the questionnaire to aid future analyses with these data. The internal consistency of the factors identified was assessed using Cronbach's alpha.

Results

Kappa scores showed 30% of items to have moderate agreement or above, 23% to have fair agreement and 47% to have slight or poor agreement. However, 89% of items had fair agreement as assessed by percentage agreement (>/= 66%). Limited variation in responses to variables is likely to have contributed to some of the low kappa values. Six questions had a low kappa and low percentage agreement (defined as poor validity); these included questions from the child personal factors, maternal self-efficacy, rules and restrictions, and local environment domains. The principal components analysis identified eleven factors and found several variables to stand alone. Eight of the composite factors identified had acceptable internal consistency (alpha >/= 0.60) and three fell just short of achieving this (0.60 > alpha > 0.50).

Conclusion

Overall, this maternal questionnaire had reasonable validity and internal consistency for assessing potential correlates of physical activity in young children. With minor revision, this could be a useful tool for future research in this area. This, in turn, will aid the development of interventions to promote physical activity in this age group.

SUBMITTER: McMinn AM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2791748 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Validation of a maternal questionnaire on correlates of physical activity in preschool children.

McMinn Alison M AM van Sluijs Esther Mf EM Harvey Nicholas C NC Cooper Cyrus C Inskip Hazel M HM Godfrey Keith M KM Griffin Simon J SJ

The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity 20091202

<h4>Background</h4>Valid measures of physical activity correlates in preschool children are lacking. This study aimed to assess the validity, factor structure and internal consistency of a maternal questionnaire on potential correlates of four-year-old children's physical activity.<h4>Methods</h4>The questionnaire was designed to measure the following constructs: child personal factors; parental support and self-efficacy for providing support; parental rules and restrictions; maternal attitudes ...[more]

PMID: 19954524

Similar Datasets

Project description:ObjectiveThis cross-sectional study examined environmental correlates of sedentary behavior (SB) and physical activity (PA) in preschool children in the urban area of Tianjin, China.MethodsData were collected from the Physical Activity and Health in Tianjin Chinese Children study, involving healthy children 3-6 years old and their families. In all children (n = 980), leisure-time SB (LTSB) and leisure-time PA (LTPA) were reported in min/day by parents. In a subgroup (n = 134), overall sedentary time, light PA, and moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) were objectively measured using ActiGraph accelerometry (≥3 days, ≥10 h/day). Environmental correlates were collected using a questionnaire that included home and neighborhood characteristics (e.g., traffic safety, presence of physical activity facilities) and children's behaviors. Potential correlates were identified using linear regression analysis.ResultsMultiple linear regression analysis showed that "having grandparents as primary caregivers" (βs and 95% confidence intervals (95%CIs) for overall sedentary time: 29.7 (2.1-57.2); LTSB (ln): 0.19 (0.11-0.28)) and "having a television (for LTSB (ln): 0.13 (0.00-0.25)) or computer (for LTSB (ln): 0.13 (0.03-0.23)) in the child's bedroom" were both associated with higher SB. Furthermore, "having grandparents as primary caregivers" was associated with less MVPA (β (95%CI): -7.6 (-14.1 to -1.2)), and "active commuting to school by walking" correlated with more MVPA (β (95%CI): 9.8 (2.2-17.4)). The path model showed that "more neighborhood PA facilities close to home" was indirectly related to higher LTPA (ln), which was partly mediated by "outdoor play" (path coefficients (95%CI): 0.005 (0.002-0.008)) and "going to these facilities more often" (path coefficients (95%CI): 0.013 (0.008-0.018)). Traffic safety was not a correlate.ConclusionFamily structure and media exposure in the home maybe important factors in shaping preschoolers' PA patterns. Built environmental correlates could indirectly influence preschoolers' LTPA through parental help with engaging in active behaviors.

Project description:BACKGROUND: There is a need for valid population level measures of physical activity in young children. The aim of this paper is to report the development, and the reliability and validity, of the Preschool-age Children's Physical Activity Questionnaire (Pre-PAQ) which was designed to measure activity of preschool-age children in the home environment in population studies. METHODS: Pre-PAQ was completed by 103 families, and validated against accelerometry for 67 children (mean age 3.8 years, SD 0.74; males 53%). Pre-PAQ categorizes activity into five progressive levels (stationary no movement, stationary with limb or trunk movement, slow, medium, or fast-paced activity). Pre-PAQ Levels 1-2 (stationary activities) were combined for analyses. Accelerometer data were categorized for stationary, sedentary (SED), non-sedentary (non-SED), light (LPA), moderate (MPA) and vigorous (VPA) physical activity using manufacturer's advice (stationary) or the cut-points described by Sirard et al and Reilly et al. Bland-Altman methods were used to assess agreement between the questionnaire and the accelerometer measures for corresponding activity levels. Reliability of the Pre-PAQ over one week was determined using intraclass correlations (ICC) or kappa (?) values and percentage of agreement of responses between the two questionnaire administrations. RESULTS: Pre-PAQ had good agreement with LPA (mean difference 1.9 mins.day?¹) and VPA (mean difference -4.8 mins.day?¹), was adequate for stationary activity (mean difference 7.6 mins.day?¹) and poor for sedentary activity, whether defined using the cut-points of Sirard et al (mean difference -235.4 mins.day?¹) or Reilly et al (mean difference -208.6 mins.day?¹) cut-points. Mean difference between the measures for total activity (i.e. Reilly's non-sedentary or Sirard's LMVPA) was 20.9 mins.day?¹ and 45.2 mins.day?¹. The limits of agreement were wide for all categories. The reliability of Pre-PAQ question responses ranged from 0.31-1.00 (ICC (2, 1)) for continuous measures and 0.60-0.97 (?) for categorical measures. CONCLUSIONS: Pre-PAQ has acceptable validity and reliability and appears promising as a population measure of activity behavior but it requires further testing on a more broadly representative population to affirm this. Pre-PAQ fills an important niche for researchers to measure activity in preschool-age children and concurrently to measure parental, family and neighborhood factors that influence these behaviors.

Dataset Information

Validation of a maternal questionnaire on correlates of physical activity in preschool children.

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusion

Publications

Validation of a maternal questionnaire on correlates of physical activity in preschool children.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets