Consulting with children in the development of self-efficacy and recall tools related to nutrition and physical activity.

Abstract

This article chronicles our efforts to develop an instrument with and for children-complete with insights, multiple iterations, and missteps along the way. The instruments we developed assess children's self-efficacy and recall related to healthy eating and physical activity. Five focus groups were held with 39 children to discuss the evolving instrument. A nine-item self-efficacy instrument and a 10-item recall instrument were developed with Flesch-Kincaid grade levels of 1.8 and 4.0, respectively, which fifth graders can complete in less than 5 min. When assessing children in clinical practice or research, we should use instruments that have been developed with children's feedback and are child-centered. Without that assurance, assessment results can be questionable.