Development of the intention to be physically active scale: A validity and reliability study in the context of physical education and sport

The aim of this study is to develop a scale for the intention to be physically active within the context of physical education and sports, and to examine its psychometric properties. The scale development process began with the creation of an item pool based on a theoretical foundation and establishing content validity through expert opinions. The research was conducted with data obtained from 439 middle school students. To determine the construct validity of the scale, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were performed. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) value (0.91) and the results of the Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity showed that the data were suitable for factor analysis. In the first stage, during the factor extraction process of the EFA conducted with data from 154 students, the eigenvalue rule (>1), scree plot, and parallel analysis results were evaluated together. As a result of the EFA, it was determined that the scale had a single-factor structure with 13 items in a 5-point Likert type format, and this single factor explained 47.07% of the total variance. In the second stage, the CFA conducted with data from 285 students revealed that the model had acceptable fit indices (x2/df=2.40, CFI=.94, GFI=.92, TLI=.93, RMSEA=.07, SRMR=.04). To prove construct validity, the CR value was calculated as 0.91 and the AVE value as 0.44. The CR value being well above the threshold supported the convergent validity evidence for the AVE value. Reliability analyses of the scale indicated that Cronbach’s Alpha was 0.90 and McDonald’s Omega was 0.91, demonstrating high internal consistency coefficients. Higher scores on the scale indicate that students have a greater intention to be physically active in the future. As a result, it was determined that the intention to be physically active scale is a valid and reliable measurement tool for physical education settings.