School of Health Sciences, Liverpool Hope University, Liverpool L16 9JD, UK.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Mar 29;18(7):3516. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18073516.
The Exercise Benefits/Barriers Scale (EBBS) research instrument has been extensively used to investigate the perceived benefits and barriers of exercise in a range of settings. In order to examine theoretical contentions and translate the findings, it is imperative to implement measurement tools that operationalize the constructs in an accurate and reliable way. The original validation of the EBBS proposed a nine-factor structure for the research tool, examined the EBBS factor structure, and suggested that various factors are important for the testing of the perception of exercise benefits and barriers, whereas a few items and factors may not be vital. The current study conducted a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using hierarchical testing in 565 participants from the northwest region of the United Kingdom, the results of which provided evidence for a four-factor structure of the benefits measure, with the Comparative Fit Index (CFI) = 0.943, Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI) = 0.933, and root means square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.051, namely life enhancement, physical performance, psychological outlook, and social interaction, as well as a two-factor structure of the barrier measures, with the CFI = 0.953, TLI = 0.931, and RMSEA = 0.063, including exercise milieu and time expenditure. Our findings showed that for a six-factor correlated model, the CFI = 0.930, TLI = 0.919, and RMSEA = 0.046. The multi-group CFA provided support for gender invariance. The results indicated that after three decades of the original validation of the EBBS, many of the core factors and items are still relevant for the assessment of higher-order factors; however, the 26-item concise tool proposed in the current study displays a better parsimony in comparison with the original 43-item questionnaire. Overall, the current study provides support for a reliable, cross-culturally valid EBBS within the UK adult population, however, it proposes a shorter and more concise version compared with the original tool, and gives direction for future research to focus on the content validity for assessing the perception of the barriers to physical activity.
《锻炼益处/障碍量表》（EBBS）研究工具已被广泛用于调查各种环境中对锻炼的感知益处和障碍。为了检验理论论点并转化研究结果，务必使用以准确和可靠的方式实现结构的测量工具。EBBS 的原始验证提出了研究工具的九因素结构，检验了 EBBS 因素结构，并提出了各种因素对于测试锻炼益处和障碍的感知很重要，而一些项目和因素可能并不重要。本研究使用英国西北地区的 565 名参与者进行了分层测试的验证性因素分析（CFA），结果为益处测量的四因素结构提供了证据，其拟合优度指数（CFI）=0.943，Tucker-Lewis 指数（TLI）=0.933，近似均方根误差（RMSEA）=0.051，即生活增强、身体表现、心理展望和社会互动，以及障碍测量的两因素结构，其 CFI=0.953，TLI=0.931，和 RMSEA=0.063，包括运动环境和时间支出。我们的研究结果表明，对于六因素相关模型，CFI=0.930，TLI=0.919，和 RMSEA=0.046。多组 CFA 提供了对性别不变性的支持。结果表明，在 EBBS 原始验证的三十年后，许多核心因素和项目仍然与评估更高阶因素相关；然而，与原始的 43 项问卷相比，当前研究提出的 26 项简洁工具在简洁性方面表现更好。总体而言，本研究在英国成年人群中提供了对可靠的、跨文化有效的 EBBS 的支持，然而，与原始工具相比，它提出了一个更简短、更简洁的版本，并为未来的研究提供了方向，重点关注评估身体活动障碍感知的内容有效性。
