Evidence for the validity of the Children's Attraction to Physical Activity questionnaire (CAPA) with young children

Attraction to physical activity is important to an individual's intrinsic motivation to engage in play, games and sports. While there are instruments designed to measure attraction to physical activity in middle childhood years, the lack of authentic measures in young children has impeded research in this area. In this study we sought to address the validity of a scale to tap young children's attraction to physical activity. Evidence for validity was based on internal consistency, content analysis, and factor structure. Australian school children (180 boys and 154 girls) from school year two, aged 6-8 years, were individually administered a modified version of the Children's Attraction to Physical Activity Scale (CAPA) [Brustad RJ. Who will go out to play? Parental and psychological influences on children's attraction to physical activity. Pediatr Exerc Sci 1993;5:210-23; Brustad RJ. Attraction to physical activity in urban school children: parental socialization and gender influences. Res Q Exerc Sport 1996;67:316-23]. The results indicated that internal consistency was acceptable for most of the subscales when negative statements were excluded from the analyses. Factor analysis revealed that the liking of games and sports, liking of physical exertion and exercise, and the importance of exercise subscales were more robust. Second order factor analysis indicated that the overall construct of attraction to physical activity was viable in this age group. With some modifications, the scale appears to provide a valid approach to the measurement of attraction to physical activity in young children. (C) 2009 Sports Medicine Australia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.