Validation of an instrument to measure high school students' attitudes toward fitness testing

The purpose of this investigation was to develop an instrument that has scores that are valid and reliable for measuring students' attitudes toward fitness testing.

The method involved the following steps: (a) an elicitation study, (b) item development, (c) a pilot study, and (d) a validation study. The pilot study included 427 student-completed instruments from 3 schools. Pilot study data analyses were conducted resulting in a proposed model for the final study. Participants for the final study were 1,199 students (524 boys and 675 girls) from 13 schools. Thirty-six experts in physical education pedagogy were the participants of the content validity study.

The data fit a model with 4 factors: cognitive, affective-enjoyment, affective-feelings, and affective-teacher. Fit statistics from the confirmatory factor analysis indicated an overall good fit of the data to this model. Goodness of Fit Index (GFI), GFI Adjusted for Degree of Freedom, root mean square error of approximation, Bentler's Comparative Fit Index, and Bentler & Bonett's Normed Fit Index scores were .892, .862, .080, .920, and .910, respectively. The Guttman-Cronbach alpha reliability coefficients for the 4 factors and overall model were: cognitive (alpha = .919), affective-enjoyment (alpha = .887), affective-feelings (alpha = .865), affective-teacher (alpha = .801), and overall (alpha = .902).

Scores from this instrument indicate that we can measure students' attitudes toward fitness testing well and can therefore permit further examination into the role these attitudes play in future physical activity.