Development and reliability of the Physical Literacy in Children Questionnaire (PL-C Quest): a self-report scale to assess children’s perceived physical literacy

Abstract

Objective: In 2017 Sport Australia led the development of a physical literacy definition for Australia. The associated Australian Physical Literacy Framework (APLF) (released in 2019) includes 30 elements within four domains (physical - 12 items, psychological - 7 items, social - 4 items and cognitive - 7 items), e.g. motivation is an element in the psychological domain and tactics is an element within the cognitive domain. It is important now to develop robust measurements which align with the APLF. This paper will: 1) briefly outline development of the Physical Literacy in Children Questionnaire (PL-C Quest) – a pictorial scale designed in 2020 to measure children’s perceived physical literacy and 2) report on reliability values for the PL-C Quest. Methods: 1) Scale development: Qualitative research methods were used to determine a) a gender and race neutral character that appealed to children and b) how children understood the images and wording designed for the PL-C Quest. Input was provided by an expert reference committee and 17 children aged 4 to 12 years. 2) In sample 2, 60 children (and their parents) aged from 6.9 to 12.4 years (mean = 9.7 years, SD = 1.5) were recruited via social media to conduct reliability analyses. Parents reported on demographics and children completed the PL-C Quest online twice. Test retest (mixed two way models for consistency) and internal consistency (polychloric alphas) were conducted. Results: 1) Children preferred a ‘bunny’ character. Children interpreted most images as intended with some images redrawn based on feedback. 2) Parents were largely University educated (n = 52, 86.7%) and spoke English at home (n = 55, 91.7%). Children completed the survey twice 15.8 days apart (SD = 3.2). Test-retest values for the complete scale were good (ICC = 0.83) and domain values ranged from adequate to good [social: ICC = 0.67, cognitive: ICC= 0.74, psychological: ICC = 0.77 and physical: ICC = 0.80]. Internal consistency was adequate to good for the cognitive (T1=0.60, T2=0.71), social (T1=0.63, T2=0.70), and physical (T1=0.76, T2 =0.83) domains and lower for the psychological domain (T1=0.53, T2=0.47). Discussion: The PL-C Quest is the first instrument designed to comprehensively measure young children’s perceived physical literacy. The reliability results are promising with the next step construct validity testing in larger diverse samples. The PL-C Quest can be used with children in education and sport settings to understand how to assist children to develop their physical literacy potential. No conflicts of interest to declare.