Development of ELIP to Assess Physical Literacy for Emerging Adults: A Methodological and Epistemological Challenge

ABSTRACT

Purpose: Following increased interest in physical literacy (PL), development of appropriate tools for assessment has become an important next step for its operationalization. To forward the development of such tools, the objective of this study was to build the foundations of the Évaluation de la Littératie Physique (ELIP), designed to help reduce existing tensions in approaches to PL assessment that may be resulting in a low uptake into applied settings. Methods: We followed two steps: (1) the development of the first version of ELIP by deploying a Delphi method (n = 30); and (2) the modification of items through cognitive interviews with emerging adults (n = 32). Results: The expert consensus highlighted four dimensions of PL to be assessed—physical; affective; cognitive; and social—with new perspectives, including a preference for broad motor tests over fitness. Conclusion: Results offer new insights into the assessment of emerging adults’ PL, but ELIP still requires further work concerning validity, reliability, and sensitivity.

KEYWORDS:

• Assessment
• cognitive interview
• Delphi method
• validation

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank all PE teachers and their student involved in organizing the cognitive interviews, as well as all the participants in the Delphi Method.

Disclosure statement

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

IRB approval

In accordance with the French law on data protection and ethics, an authorization to conduct this study was given by the ethics committee of the University of Lille under number 2021-463-S90.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/02701367.2022.2125927

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.