MRC Epidemiology Unit, Institute of Metabolic Science, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 0QQ, UK.
Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2009 Dec 2;6:81. doi: 10.1186/1479-5868-6-81.
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.
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.
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).
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.
目前缺乏适用于学龄前儿童的体力活动相关因素的有效测量方法。本研究旨在评估一份针对 4 岁儿童体力活动相关因素的母亲问卷的效度、结构和内部一致性。
问卷设计用于测量以下结构：儿童个体因素；父母提供支持的支持度和自我效能；父母规则和限制；母亲态度和观念；母亲行为；体力活动障碍；家庭和当地环境。进行了两项独立的研究。研究 I 纳入了 24 名 4 岁儿童的母亲，她们完成了问卷，然后参加了电话访谈，涵盖了与问卷相似的项目。为了评估有效性，使用 Cohen's kappa 和百分比一致性来评估访谈和问卷回答之间的一致性。研究 II 涉及了 398 名 4 岁儿童的母亲，她们参加了南安普敦女性调查。在这项研究中，主成分分析用于探索问卷的结构，以帮助未来对这些数据进行分析。使用 Cronbach's alpha 评估确定的因素的内部一致性。
kappa 评分显示 30%的项目具有中度或以上一致性，23%的项目具有公平一致性，47%的项目具有轻微或较差的一致性。然而，89%的项目在百分比一致性（>/= 66%）方面具有公平一致性。变量的响应变化有限，这可能导致一些 kappa 值较低。六个项目的 kappa 和百分比一致性都较低（定义为有效性较低）；这些项目包括来自儿童个体因素、母亲自我效能、规则和限制以及当地环境领域的问题。主成分分析确定了 11 个因素，并发现了一些独立的变量。确定的 8 个综合因素具有可接受的内部一致性（alpha >/= 0.60），3 个因素接近但未达到这一标准（0.60 > alpha > 0.50）。
总体而言，这份母亲问卷具有评估幼儿体力活动相关因素的合理有效性和内部一致性。经过轻微修订，这可能成为该领域未来研究的有用工具。这反过来又将有助于制定促进这一年龄组体力活动的干预措施。
