Development and validation of the CAPPAC scale to measure multidimensional play in children and adolescents

Play is a core component of human behaviour that supports cognitive, social, and emotional development; yet its assessment remains fragmented across contexts and methodologies. The present study aimed to develop and validate a multidimensional measure of individual play perceptions in children and adolescents. In two independent studies conducted in Switzerland with parents of children aged 4 to 11 and adolescents aged 12 to 15, we performed exploratory (Study 1: N = 305) and confirmatory (Study 2: N = 263) factor analyses to develop and validate a multidimensional measure of individual play perceptions as part of the Context, Activity, and Perceptions of Play in Adolescents and Children (CAPPAC) scale. Study 1 identified seven underlying dimensions that were confirmed in Study 2 and eventually labelled as: positive immersion, creative engagement, adversarial play, cooperative play, cognitive gain, physical engagement, and autonomous play. The dimensions demonstrated satisfactory psychometric properties, including internal consistency and construct validity. The final CAPPAC scale assesses three domains of play: (1) the context in which play occurs (social, spatial, temporal); (2) the play modality of the activity (analogue, digital, hybrid); and (3) individual play perceptions. By linking contextual, activity-based, and perceptual aspects of play, the CAPPAC scale provides researchers, educators, clinicians, and practitioners with a conceptually grounded and adaptable tool to examine how play, as a multidimensional and situated experience, contributes to developmental processes.