Canadian Assessment of Physical Literacy in grades 7-9 (12-16 years): Preliminary validity and descriptive results

ABSTRACT

Background: The Canadian Assessment of Physical Literacy (CAPL) accurately and reliably assesses the physical literacy level of young children. However, in preliminary analyses ceiling effects were noted among 183 older children. The purposes of this study were to assess the validity of a modified CAPL designed for older children (CAPL 789) and to offer descriptive results.

Methods: CAPL 789 assessed the physical literacy of Canadian children in grades 7–9. Data were collected from schools and recreation facilities in the provinces of Alberta and Ontario (Canada), yielding a new sample of 245 participants (129 girls, 13.7 ± 0.9 years). Descriptive statistics were calculated for all CAPL domains. Age and gender effects were examined to support the validity.

Results: Physical competence score (/32) increased with age (F = 4.90, p < 0.05), the means in grades 7–9 being 18.9 ± 3.2, 20.9 ± 4.4 and 21.2 ± 3.4, respectively. Girls scored significantly higher (t = −2.29, p < 0.05) than boys (6.6 ± 1.2 vs 6.3 ± 1.3) in the knowledge assessment (/10).

Conclusion: The CAPL 789 was feasible among children from grades 7–9. Additional research is required to establish the psychometric properties in children 12 to 16 years.

KEYWORDS:

• Adolescents
• children
• health
• measurement
• motor development
• physical activity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

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Funding

This work was completed without external funding.