Design and Validation of Scales to Measure Adolescent Attitude toward Eating and toward Physical Activity

Abstract

Background: Different authors suggest that attitude is amediator in behavior change, so it is a predictor of behavior practice. The main of this study was to design and to validate two scales for measure adolescent attitude toward healthy eating and adolescent attitude toward healthy physical activity. Methods: Scales were design based on a literature review. After, they were validated using an on-line Delphi Panel with eighteen experts, a pretest, and a pilot test with a sample of 188 high school students. Comprehensibility, content validity, adequacy, as well as the reliability (alpha of Cronbach test), and construct validity (exploratory factor analysis) of scales were tested. Results: Scales validated by experts were considered appropriate in the pretest. In the pilot test, the ten-item Attitude to Eating Scale obtained α=0.72. The eight-itemAttitude to PhysicalActivity Scale obtained α=0.86. They showed evidence of one-dimensional interpretation after factor analysis, a) all items got weights r>0.30 in first factor before rotations, b) the first factor explained a significant proportion of variance before rotations, and c) the total variance explained by the main factors extracted was greater than 50%. Conclusions: The Scales showed their reliability and validity. They could be employed to assess attitude to these priority intervention areas in Spanish adolescents, and to evaluate this intermediate result of health interventions and health programs.