VALIDATION OF GIRL'S SELF-REPORTS OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY

Abstract

1584 Although the health benefits of physical activity (PA) have been well documented, relatively little is known about the early development and determinants of PA. One of the deterrents to PA research with children has been the lack of a good method for simultaneously assessing PA and psychosocial influences. This study addresses methodological problems by 1. Assessing physical activity with 12 hours of minute-by-minute HR readings on three separate days; 2 In the evening, interviewing each child and her parents about the events of the day, particularly periods of PA, TV watching, and computer games. Data from 44 children ages 8 to 13 are analyzed here. Results support the use of multiple methods for assessing PA in children. The HR data validated the children's estimates of duration of PA (r = 54) while providing more accurate information about the frequency of bouts of aerobic activity and identifying potential biases in children's estimates. Although the HR data was consistent with the self-report data, there was considerable individual variation in accuracy, the average self-estimate of duration of PA episodes (80.2 min) was substantially longer than that of the HR data (56.5 min), and there were no or inverse relations between self-report and HR data in some children (intraindividual correlations between self-report and HR data ranged from −.13 to .95). Indicators of parental influences suggest that parents play a role in reducing barriers to PA, such as providing transportation, however, parents are not usually active participants with their children. The influence of siblings and peers as both role models and co-participants is more apparent in this age group. Supported by a Research Challenge Award from the Ohio Board of Regents