Development of Questionnaires to Measure Psychosocial Influences on Children’s Physical Activity 1 RUTH P. SAUNDERS,PH.D.,* ,2 RUSSELL R. PATE,PH.D.,* GWEN FELTON,PH.D.,† MARSHA DOWDA, MSPH,* MARTIN C. WEINRICH,PH.D.,* DIANNE S. WARD,ED.D.,* MARY ANN PARSONS,PH.D.,† AND TOM BARANOWSKI,PH.D.‡ *School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29208; †College of Nursing, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29208; and ‡Department of Behavioral Science, University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas 77030 Background. The purpose of this study was to de- velop and validate questionnaires used to measure psychosocial determinants of physical activity in pre- adolescent children. Methods. Three theory-based questionnaires and a measure of after-school physical activity were adminis- tered to 422 fifth-grade students. A cross-validation de- sign was employed for psychometric development of the scales, including factor analysis, reliability, and valida- tion by correlating scale scores with intention to be physically active and after-school physical activity. Results. The Social Influences scale contained a single factor. The Self-Efficacy scale contained three factors: support seeking, barriers, and positive alter- natives. The Beliefs scale contained two factors: social outcomes and physical activity outcomes. Reliability coefficients ranged from about 0.50 to 0.78. Significant correlations were obtained between all six scales and intention in the development sample, and between five scales and intention in the validation sample. Signifi- cant correlations were obtained between social influ- ence and self-efficacy barriers and physical activity in the development sample, and between social influ- ences and physical activity in the validation sample. Conclusions. Three scales to measure psychosocial de- terminants of physical activity were refined for use with rural, predominantly African-American, preadolescent children, and shown to be both reliable and valid. Factor analysis resulted in interpretable subscales that may be used as variables. These preliminary results provide support for using the scales to measure influences on activity in children. © 1997 Academic Press Key Words: physical activity; psychosocial determi- nants; children; questionnaires; self efficacy; social in- fluences; beliefs; intentions. INTRODUCTION Among adults physical inactivity contributes to in- creased risk for several chronic diseases, including coronary heart disease [1], hypertension [2], non- insulin-dependent diabetes [3,4], osteoporosis [5], obe- sity [6], and certain cancers [7]. Among youth the link between physical activity and health is not as well un- derstood. However, physically active youth, compared with their less active counterparts, have more favor- able cardiovascular disease risk factors, including blood lipids [8], fitness [9], obesity [10], body fat [11], and resting blood pressure [12]. Regular participation in physical activity or sport also appears to be associ- ated with less substance abuse [13] and positive feel- ings toward school [14]. Youth are the most active segment of the U.S. popu- lation [15]. Yet, many youth are not as active as rec- ommended by experts. In the 1990 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 25% of the girls and 50% of the boys reported participation in vigorous exercise three or more times per week [16]. Much more time is spent watching television, with 70% reporting watching tele- vision for more than 1 hr on a typical school day and approximately 40% watching 3 hr or more per day [16]. The literature on determinants of physical activity behavior among adults indicates that sedentary per- sons, compared with active persons, are more likely to be older, female, less educated, smokers, and over- weight [17]. Family support, peer support, enjoyment of activity, perceived barriers to activity, and confi- dence in ability to be active appear to be important influences on physical activity among adults [ 17]. Among youth the determinants of physical activity be- havior are less well understood. Factors that appear to be associated with physical activity among children and youth are hereditary factors [18], peer support [19], parental activity and support [20–22], personal physical fitness [9], time spent out of doors [18], and self-efficacy [19,22]. 1 This research was funded by the National Institutes of Health, RO1 NR 0363401, Bethesda, Maryland. 2 To whom correspondence and reprint requests should be ad- dressed. Fax: (803) 777-6290. PREVENTIVE MEDICINE 26, 241–247 (1997) ARTICLE NO. PM960134 241 0091-7435/97 $25.00 Copyright © 1997 by Academic Press All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.