Testing the reliability of a scale for the measurement of variety-support for adolescents in Physical Education lessons.

The aim of this study is to test the reliability of a scale for the measurement of variety-support for adolescents. (Variety Support definition - a social contextual concept whereby interpersonal factors facilitate a diverse range of tasks, actions, and opportunities.) Phase 1: Variety-Support Scale Development The Basic Needs Satisfaction in Sport Scale (BNSSS) 80 has commonly been used and is validated for measuring the psychological needs of adolescents. The BNSSS currently assesses the three constructs of autonomy, competence and relatedness in relation to sport. A variety-support scale will be developed for use with the BNSSS and will involve three steps: Step 1 - Item development: This step involves developing potential items for assessing variety- support and determining their content validity. Based on CI Lubans and CI Lonsdale’s previous work, 30 experts in SDT will be invited to assess the content validity of the scale using established methods (experts work in fields of physical activity, education, psychology and/or Self Determination Theory). After the experts are provided with conceptual definitions of the underlying constructs (i.e. variety support vs perceived variety) they will be asked to examine the items and rate the degree to which each item matches the content using the following 5-point Likert scale: 1 = Poor match to 5 = Excellent match. Experts will also be asked to comment on the overall utility of the measure and to provide feedback for improvement. One final variety support scale will be produced at the conclusion of this step. Step 2: Factorial validity analysis: The primary aim of this step is to establish the factorial validity of the variety-support scale in a sample of adolescents. We will recruit Grade 8 students (n=140) from NSW secondary Public schools once study approval is obtained from the relevant human ethics committees and the school principals. Participants must have informed signed consent from a parent or guardian. Sample size greater than 100 is recommended. Adolescents will answer the scale questionnaire, taking approx 5 minutes to complete. They will answer the questionnaire a single time for each version of the scale. Step 3: Test-retest reliability analysis: The aim of this step is to determine the test–retest reliability of the final variety-support scale in a sample of adolescent boys and girls (N = 80) attending a school not involved in step 2. Adolescents will complete the variety-support scale on two occasions (1-week apart) to assess test-retest reliability. Aikens and critical values will be used to test the internal validity of scale items.