Content validity and reliability of an enjoyable multicomponent agility test for boys: The N-challenge test

ABSTRACT

Agility is a crucial fitness component for success in sports and daily playful activities for children. The purpose of this study was to develop a multicomponent agility test, N-challenge, to determine the content validity and reliability of N-challenge, and to investigate the enjoyment level of N-challenge among elementary school boys. N-challenge consisted of six sections and total running time. The running time of N-challenge was measured in a single trial concomitantly with timing/speed gates. Content validity was assessed by eight experts in sports science. To measure reliability, intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and standard error of measurement (SEM) were calculated using a test-retest procedure. The enjoyment levels of the boys who performed N-challenge were assessed using a questionnaire. The item-content validity index of the total running time of N-challenge was 1.00. The ICC of the total running time of N-challenge was 0.97 (95% confidence interval: 0.96–0.98), which was categorized as an almost perfect level of reliability. The SEM of N-challenge was 0.18 s (1.9%), indicating good absolute reliability. Approximately 95% of the boys showed enjoyment after performing the test. These results suggest that N-challenge has adequate content validity and excellent reliability as an agility test for boys.

KEYWORDS:

• Child
• growth and development
• sprint
• change of direction
• enjoyment

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Dr. Toru Sato for practical advice during planning the N-challenge test. This study was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI Grant Numbers JP17K01613, JP17K18604, JP19K11592, and JP20K11437 from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declare no conflicts of interest with respect to the authorship or publication of this article.

Author Contributions

N. Morita and T. Okuda developed the course design for N-challenge and study concept; All authors contributed to the study design; N. Morita and T. Ishihara analyzed and interpreted the data; N. Morita, T. Ishihara, and T. Okuda drafted the manuscript. R. Yamamoto, and N. Shide provided critical revisions and important intellectual content; All authors approved the final version of the manuscript for submission.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data presented in this study are available upon reasonable request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to the agreement for privacy protection made with the parents/guardians in obtaining the informed consent.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2022.2043698

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Japan society for the promotion of science [JP17K01613]; Japan society for the promotion of science [JP20K11437]; Japan society for the promotion of science [JP19K11592]; Japan society for the promotion of science [JP17K18604].