A Validation and Reliability Study of the Physical Activity and Healthy Food Efficacy Scale for Children (PAHFE)

Area of Science:

• Child Psychology
• Health Behavior Research
• Psychometrics

Background:

• Self-efficacy is crucial for behavior change in children.
• Existing scales may not fully capture confidence in both physical activity and healthy eating decisions.
• Validating measurement tools is essential for accurate research and intervention.

Purpose of the Study:

• To provide validity evidence for the Physical Activity and Healthy Food Efficacy Scale for Children (PAHFE).
• To assess the internal consistency and convergent validity of the PAHFE.
• To establish the PAHFE as a reliable measure of children's self-efficacy in making healthy choices.

Main Methods:

• The study examined construct validity evidence for the PAHFE.
• Four subscales were identified: Goal-Setting for Physical Activity, Goal-Setting for Healthy Food Choices, Decision-Making for Physical Activity, and Decision-Making for Healthy Food Choices.
• Internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) and convergent validity were statistically analyzed.

Main Results:

• The PAHFE demonstrated moderate to high internal consistency across all subscales (0.59 ≤ alpha ≤ 0.87).
• Significant convergent validity was found between the Decision-Making for Healthy Food Choice and Decision-Making for Physical Activity subscales.
• The findings support the PAHFE's reliability and validity.

Conclusions:

• The PAHFE provides strong validity evidence for measuring children's self-efficacy in physical activity and healthy eating.
• The scale's subscales are internally consistent and show convergent validity.
• The PAHFE is a potentially useful tool for predicting children's physical activity and eating behaviors.