Psychometric properties of the Portuguese version of the physical activity parenting practices questionnaire

Abstract

Background: Adopting a healthy lifestyle, including regular physical activity, is often part of interventions targeting childhood overweight and obesity. However, to properly inform the objectives of the intervention, reliable psychometric measures are needed to better understand children's and their families necessities and characteristics.

Objectives: To evaluate the psychometric properties of the Physical Activity Parenting Practices questionnaire in a community sample of Portuguese parents of children aged 5-10, assess measurement invariance across children's weight status, and construct validity.

Methods: Five hundred three parents completed the Portuguese version of the Physical Activity Parenting Practices (PAPP) questionnaire, a sociodemographic questionnaire, the Comprehensive Feeding Practices Questionnaire, and the Lifestyle Behavior Checklist. A subsample (n = 125) completed the PAPP questionnaire 1 month later. Data analyses were performed using R's lavaan (version 0.6-12) and psych (version 2.2.9) packages.

Results: Confirmatory factor analyses revealed good psychometric properties for the PAPP's single-factor Encouragement scale and the three-factor Discouragement scale. Configural, metric, and scalar invariance were found across parents of children with different weight statuses for both scales' factor structures. Internal reliability ranged from α = .64 to α = .89, and test-retest reliability ranged from r = .57 to r = .74.

Conclusions: The constructs evaluated by PAPP questionnaire revealed adequate validity. The Portuguese version of the PAPP questionnaire is a reliable measure to assess relevant physical activity parenting practices, capable of differentiating the practices of parents with children of different weight statuses, and useful for both research and intervention purposes.

Keywords: Childhood overweight and obesity; Confirmatory factor analysis; Measurement invariance; Physical activity discouragement; Physical activity encouragement; Physical activity parenting practices.