Design and validation of a Physical Activity Self-Regulation Scale

Abstract

Strategies for health promotion underscore the importance of physical activity for wellness and disease prevention. However, the information made available to people seldom has an impact on their habits. Consolidating healthy physical activity habits requires, in addition to knowledge, the provision of tools to observe, assess and initiate and maintain actions to achieve its goals. Young people are one of the most important risk groups in the development of obesity because they are still in at the stage of consolidating their habits. Therefore, the aim of this study was to design and validate an instrument to measure self-regulation in physical activity in Mexican university students. Initially 51 items were drafted, which were later evaluated by four experts. Two applications of the instrument were conducted with a total of 424 participants. Factorial analysis of non-weighted least squares with Promax rotation was performed. Factor loading under 0.40 or commonality below 0.30 were discarded. A 12 item instrument grouped in three factors was obtained which explained 49.4% of the variance: self-reaction, self-observation and self-evaluation. Finally, using Cronbach's alpha test, the instrument had a high reliability coefficient (α = .846). This scale is a valid and reliable tool for measuring self-regulation of the physical activity habits of Mexican college students and can be used to develop diagnostics and evaluate interventions to improve physical activity habits.