The development of the Pediatric Motivation Scale for rehabilitation.

Background: Clinicians recognize that client motivation is key to optimizing rehabilitation; however, they are limited in its assessment by a paucity of motivation measures.

Purpose: This paper presents the preliminary psychometrics of the Pediatric Motivation Scale (PMOT) designed to measure motivation from a child's perspective.

Method: Content validity of the PMOT was measured through expert feedback (n = 12), and field testing ocurred with 41 children, 21 in rehabilitation and 20 healthy. Pearson product-moment correlations were used to analyze subscale correlations, test-retest reliability, and convergent validity with the Pediatric Volitional Questionnaire (PVQ). Internal consistency was measured using Cronbach's alpha.

Findings: Preliminary psychometric evaluation indicates strong internal consistency for PMOT total (α = .96) and subscales (α = .79-.91). The PMOT and PVQ moderately correlated in the rehabilitation subsample (r = .71, p < .01); no correlation was found in the healthy subsample (p > .05). Test-retest reliability was excellent (r = .97).

Implications: This study provides preliminary psychometric evidence of the PMOT for children undergoing rehabilitation. These pilot findings warrant ongoing scale development.