Reliability and validity of the Safe Routes to school parent and student surveys

Noreen C Mcdonald,Tabitha S Combs,Kelly R Evenson,Richard H Winters,Amanda E Dwelley

doi:10.1186/1479-5868-8-56

Abstract

BackgroundThe purpose of this study is to assess the reliability and validity of the U.S. National Center for Safe Routes to School's in-class student travel tallies and written parent surveys. Over 65,000 tallies and 374,000 parent surveys have been completed, but no published studies have examined their measurement properties.MethodsStudents and parents from two Charlotte, NC (USA) elementary schools participated. Tallies were conducted on two consecutive days using a hand-raising protocol; on day two students were also asked to recall the previous days' travel. The recall from day two was compared with day one to assess 24-hour test-retest reliability. Convergent validity was assessed by comparing parent-reports of students' travel mode with student-reports of travel mode. Two-week test-retest reliability of the parent survey was assessed by comparing within-parent responses. Reliability and validity were assessed using kappa statistics.ResultsA total of 542 students participated in the in-class student travel tally reliability assessment and 262 parent-student dyads participated in the validity assessment. Reliability was high for travel to and from school (kappa > 0.8); convergent validity was lower but still high (kappa > 0.75). There were no differences by student grade level. Two-week test-retest reliability of the parent survey (n = 112) ranged from moderate to very high for objective questions on travel mode and travel times (kappa range: 0.62 - 0.97) but was substantially lower for subjective assessments of barriers to walking to school (kappa range: 0.31 - 0.76).ConclusionsThe student in-class student travel tally exhibited high reliability and validity at all elementary grades. The parent survey had high reliability on questions related to student travel mode, but lower reliability for attitudinal questions identifying barriers to walking to school. Parent survey design should be improved so that responses clearly indicate issues that influence parental decision making in regards to their children's mode of travel to school.

Highlights

Low levels of physical activity among youth and the rise in childhood overweight and obesity have focused attention on interventions to increase physical activity [1,2]
Despite the broad scope of school travel data collection, no published studies have examined the measurement properties of these instruments using the protocols established by the National Center for Safe Routes to School (SRTS)
Student Travel Tally: Test-Retest Reliability Participation rates were high for the reliability test of the student travel travel tally with 542 students (88.6% of eligible students) providing data on the trip to school and 468 students (76.5% of eligible students) providing the data for the trip home from school

Summary

Introduction

Low levels of physical activity among youth and the rise in childhood overweight and obesity have focused attention on interventions to increase physical activity [1,2]. A critical component of the SRTS program is the collection of school-level data on how children travel between home and school. This information is used to assess mobility, select schools for SRTS funding, monitor SRTS programs, and evaluate SRTS programs. The National Center for SRTS - the federal clearinghouse developed standardized forms to collect data from students and parents on school travel [8]. Despite the broad scope of school travel data collection, no published studies have examined the measurement properties of these instruments using the protocols established by the National Center for SRTS. The purpose of this study is to assess the reliability and validity of the U.S National Center for Safe Routes to School’s in-class student travel tallies and written parent surveys. Over 65,000 tallies and 374,000 parent surveys have been completed, but no published studies have examined their measurement properties

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