Validation of Scores From an Instrument Assessing Student Attitude Toward Physical Education

Abstract

The purposes of this study were to develop an instrument to assess student attitude toward physical education and to provide psychometric evidence of reliability and validity of the interpretation of scores from the attitude instrument. The study was conducted in multiple phases: (a) elicitation study, (b) preliminary study, (c) content validity study, and (d) reliability and validity study. Participants for the elicitation study were 110 middle school students. Enjoyment and Perceived Usefulness emerged as the primary factors, whereas the physical education teacher, curriculum, and peers were found to be the primary subfactors through student elicitation. The preliminary study utilized 33 students. Participants for the content validity study were 35 experts in physical education pedagogy. The reliability and validity study involved 995 students (Grades 6, 7, and 8). Results indicate that this instrument produces reliable and valid scores based on the 2-component view of attitude. The hypothesized factor structure is a good fit to the observed data.