Adapting the physical activity enjoyment scale (PACES) for 3rd-5th grade youth

BACKGROUND: Physical activity (PA) is essential for good health and proper growth and development among children and youth. Measuring PA enjoyment is important as it may help determine actual PA participation. PURPOSE: We adapted the Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale (PACES) for use with 3rd–5th graders and assessed several psychometric properties. SIGNIFICANCE: Few tools for measuring PA in young children exist and little is known about enjoyment factors that may help sustain PA into adolescence and beyond. METHODS: The 14-item PACES, modified for use with 8th grade girls in a previous study, was further revised to be age-appropriate for 8-10 year-old elementary school children. A standardized survey was read aloud to 6-8 youth at a time. Overall, 844 participants completed the PACES-Revised (PACES-R). Psychometric measures included internal consistency, factor analysis, and concurrent validity. RESULTS: Two PACES-R factors emerged: PA enjoyment and PA displeasure, with reliability coefficients of .789 and .736 respectively. Significant correlations existed between the subscales and PA frequency, suggesting concurrent validity of the PACES-R for 3rd-5th graders. CONCLUSIONS: The PACES-R was reliable and valid for use with 3rd-5th grade children and correlated with PA frequency. Factor analysis revealed two interpretable subscales whose components may be useful in evaluations of future PA interventions. Findings support the utility of the PACES-R in research studies with 3rd-5th graders that examine PA enjoyment. PA enjoyment is an important variable to measure as it may contribute to participating in and sustaining PA, thereby increasing the potential beneficial effect of PA on health-related outcomes.