Using item response theory to assess the psychometric properties of the physical activity enjoyment scale

PURPOSETherefore, the purpose of this study was to use Item Response Theory to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale (PACES), a survey commonly used in physical activity studies for measuring enjoyment.METHODSThe 18- item PACES was administered to 378 healthy adults, aged 25 to 75 years (49% women; 62% Caucasians), at the baseline assessment for a lifestyle physical activity intervention trial. Respondents were asked to rate their feelings about physical activity on a 7-point bipolar scale. The ConQuest IRT software was used to assess model fit, item endorsement, item functioning, and content representation.RESULTSA partial credit IRT was fitted to the data. Item endorsement parameters ranged from −1.0 to +1.0, suggesting items only differentiated among respondents perceiving moderate levels of enjoyment. Weighted fit indices of two items showed that few respondents selected extreme responses (i.e., indicated high enjoyment). For 11 items, respondents did not use one or two of the response options, suggesting that the response format may need to be revised.CONCLUSIONSThe ability of PACES to differentiate respondents based on their enjoyment could be improved by revising the content of two items, creating items targeting respondents with low or high enjoyment, and shortening response option choices from seven to five or six