Development of a measure of adolescent leisure interests

Two studies examined the internal consistency and test-retest reliability of the Adolescent Leisure Interest Profile (ALIP), an 86-item measure of adolescent leisure activity interest, leisure participation, and feelings about leisure. In addition, leisure activity interests and participation of adolescents with and without disabilities were described, and the ability of the ALIP to discriminate among four groups of adolescents was examined.

After preliminary item development, two separate reliability studies of the ALIP were conducted. The ALIP was administered twice to 88 adolescents with psychiatric, learning, and physical disabilities and to 28 adolescents without disabilities. In both studies, the second administration took place from 7 days to 14 days after the first. In addition, data from the first administration in both reliability studies were combined to examine the ability of the ALIP to discriminate among adolescents with and without disabilities.

Using Cronbach's alpha to estimate internal consistency and Pearson product-moment correlations to examine test-retest reliability, acceptable levels of reliability for total scores derived from the ALIP were found in both studies. Virtually all test-retest reliability coefficients for the six total scores exceeded .60 for all participants except those with learning disabilities. Internal consistency estimates for a total score of overall level of interest in the activities exceeded .90 in both studies. Although there were few differences among the four study groups in terms of activity leisure interests or participation, there was some evidence that total scores on the ALIP can discriminate among adolescents with and without disabilities.

The ALIP appears to have good reliability and may be useful as a clinical and research tool.