Self-efficacy and enjoyment of physical activity in children: factorial validity of two pictorial scales

Milena Morano; Laura Bortoli; Montse C Ruiz; Francesca Vitali; Claudio Robazza

doi:10.7717/peerj.7402

Self-efficacy and enjoyment of physical activity in children: factorial validity of two pictorial scales

PeerJ. 2019 Jul 29:7:e7402. doi: 10.7717/peerj.7402. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Milena Morano^{1

2}, Laura Bortoli³, Montse C Ruiz⁴, Francesca Vitali⁵, Claudio Robazza³

Affiliations

¹ Parisi-De Sanctis Institute, MIUR (Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research), Foggia, Italy.
² School of Medicine and Health Sciences, "G. d'Annunzio" University of Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy.
³ BIND-Behavioral Imaging and Neural Dynamics Center, Department of Medicine and Aging Sciences, "G. d'Annunzio" University of Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy.
⁴ Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland.
⁵ Department of Neurosciences, Biomedicine, and Movement, University of Verona, Verona, Italy.

Abstract

Background: Self-efficacy and enjoyment are two main constructs proposed within many motivational theories in any human endeavor, sport and physical activity included.

Methods: The purpose of this study was to examine the factor structure of two pictorial scales measuring self-efficacy and enjoyment levels in a sample of 14,035 Italian schoolchildren (7,075 boys and 6,960 girls, 6- to 7-year-olds). An important feature of the two scales is that they are in a pictorial format in order to prompt a straightforward understanding in children. The whole sample was randomly split in two subsamples according to gender and age and the factor structure of the measures was examined across subsamples.

Results: Data were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis, which yielded satisfactory fit indices on the measures of both subsamples. Overall findings supported the single factor structure of the scales, which can be easily administered to 6- to 7-year-old children to assess two relevant psychological constructs in physical education.

Keywords: Assessment; Confirmatory factor analysis; Physical education; Primary school; Psychological constructs.

Grants and funding

The project was funded by the Health Department of the Abruzzo Region (Assessorato alla Sanità della Regione Abruzzo). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.