MEASURING GENERAL LEVELS OF PHYSICAL-ACTIVITY - PRELIMINARY EVIDENCE FOR THE PHYSICAL-ACTIVITY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR OLDER CHILDREN

This article reports three studies that investigated psychometric prop erties of the Physical Activity Questionnaire for Older Children (PAQ- C). The PAQ-C is a guided self-administered 7-day recall measure desig ned to assess general physical activity levels during the school year for children in grades four and higher. Study one, with 215 students r anging in age from 9 to 15 yr, found the PAQ-C had acceptable item and test score characteristics such as item distribution, corrected item- total correlations, and internal consistency. Study two, involving 84 students ranging from 9 to 14 yr, indicated acceptable levels of test- retest reliability for both males (r = 0.75) and females (r = 0.82) af ter 1 wk. The third study used Generalizability theory to investigate the reliability for using the average of either two or three PAQ-C sco res collected during fall, winter, and spring seasons. Based on the re sponses of 200 students ranging from 8 to 16 yr, generalizability coef ficients exceeded 0.80 for either the average of two or three response s for both younger (<13 yr) and older subjects. In all three studies, the PAQ-C demonstrated acceptable internal consistency and males were significantly more active than females. These results provide prelimin ary support for the PAQ-C as a cost efficient method of assessing gene ral levels of children's physical activity during the school year.