The Physical Activity Parenting Practices (PAPP) Item Bank: A psychometrically validated tool for improving the measurement of physical activity parenting practices of parents of 5–12-year-old children

Authors: MÂSSE, LOUISE - University Of British Columbia; O'CONNOR, TERESIA - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC); LIN, YINGYI - University Of British Columbia; CARBERT, NICOLE - University Of British Columbia; HUGHES, SHERYL - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC); BARANOWSKI, TOM - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC); BEAUCHAMP, MARK - University Of British Columbia

Submitted to: International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/13/2020
Publication Date: 11/4/2020
Citation: Masse, L.C., O'Connor, T.M., Lin, Y., Carbert, N.S., Hughes, S.O., Baranowski, T., Beauchamp, M.R. 2020. The Physical Activity Parenting Practices (PAPP) Item Bank: A psychometrically validated tool for improving the measurement of physical activity parenting practices of parents of 5–12-year-old children. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity. 17:134. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-020-01036-0.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-020-01036-0

Interpretive Summary: Parents are an important influence on their children's physical activity behaviors, through their parenting behaviors in this context, termed physical activity parenting practices (PAPP). There is no standardized or agreed upon method for how to measure PAPP for observational or interventions studies. This makes it difficult to compare results across studies and ultimately to understand how parents influence their children's physical activity. This study therefore builds on previous work by this team to build an item bank of PAPP items and concepts informed by a systemic review of published instruments, along with parent and expert input. The purpose of this phase of the study was to assess the psychometric properties of the resulting PAPP item bank of 12 PAPP concepts and 100 items to demonstrate if the concepts are statistically sound and which items should be used to measure each PAPP concept. A sample of 626 Canadian parents, with children 5-12 years old, were recruited from an internet research polling firm using quota sampling to get appropriate representation of parent sex, ethnicity, and income. Parents completed an online survey and classical test and item response theories were used to assess the statistical properties of the PAPP items, concepts and overall framework based on the parent's responses. The analyses found that the expert-informed PAPP framework was mainly supported with some changes, resulting in a framework with nine concepts (coercive control, non-directive support, expectations, facilitation, restrict indoor PA, allow unsupervised PA, autonomy support, guided choices, and rewards) organized into three dimensions (neglect/control, structure, and autonomy promotion). The resulting 65 items can be used to reliably assess parent's use of PAPP across these none concepts. Additional computer adaptive testing analysis identified that some of the concepts could be assessed with even fewer items when needed, resulting a short version of PAPP with only 31 items which can be used when greater efficiency is required.

Technical Abstract: Many tools have been developed to measure physical activity parenting practices (PAPP). Currently, there is little standardization on how PAPP constructs are operationalized for 5–12 year-old children. Given this lack of consistency, our team has started the process of standardizing the measurement of PAPP by developing an item bank which was conceptually informed by 24 experts from 6 countries. The purpose of this paper is to present the psychometric properties of the PAPP item bank using the expert-informed PAPP conceptual framework. A sample (N=626) of Canadian parents completed the PAPP item bank (100 items measuring 12 constructs). Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFA), confirmatory bi-factor item analyses, and Item Response Modeling (IRM) were used to assess the structural validity of scores derived from the PAPP item bank. Differential Item Functioning (DIF) and Differential Response Functioning (DRF) were used to determine whether the PAPP items are invariant by parent sex, ethnicity of parent, and household income. Finally, Computerized Adaptive Testing (CAT) simulations were used to determine the efficiency of the item bank – this involved ascertaining whether each construct can be assessed with fewer items. The PAPP expert-informed conceptual framework was mainly supported by the CFA analyses. Notable changes included: a) collapsing smaller constructs into one general construct (modeling, co-participation, and monitoring constructs were collapsed into a construct assessing nondirective support); or b) splitting a construct into two smaller constructs (restrict for safety reason construct was split into indoor physical activity restriction and allowance for unsupervised outside physical activity). While the CFA analyses supported the structural validity of 11 constructs, the bi-factor item analyses and IRM analyses supported collapsing correlated constructs into more general constructs. These analyses further reduced the number of constructs measured by the PAPP item bank to nine constructs (65 items – reliability ranging from .79 to .94). As seven of the PAPP constructs had reliability greater than .80, CAT simulations further reduced the number of items to 31 items. Overall, the PAPP item bank has excellent psychometric properties and provides an efficient way to assess PAPP.