Validation of the Chinese version of the exercise empowerment scale among college students (EES-C).

Objective: The escalating prevalence of physical inactivity among college students represents a significant public health challenge, particularly in light of its correlation with detrimental health outcomes. A growing body of evidence underscores the necessity of adhering to recommended levels of regular physical activity to thwart the onset of chronic diseases. One primary aim of school physical education initiatives is to elevate physical activity levels and bolster student motivation toward engaging in physical exercise. Engagement in sports activities has demonstrated efficacy in augmenting students' motor skills, elevating their self-efficacy, and enhancing cognitive competencies related to physical prowess, while also promoting sustained participation in physical activities. The Exercise Empowerment Scale (EES) has been formulated to quantitatively assess the degree of exercise empowerment. To date, no validated Chinese version of the EES has been reported in the literature. To address this, this present study developed and validated a Chinese version of the EES in a large sample of Chinese college students.

Methods: A sample of Chinese college students ( = 885) was analyzed using Rasch analysis to examine the validity of the Exercise Empowerment Scale. In addition, physical activity and psychological resilience were used to investigate the potential associations with exercise empowerment.

Results: The EES-C was found to be a unidimensional scale, and the distribution of item difficulty was relatively even. The scale had good reliability (individual reliability of 0.87, and item reliability of 0.99). No differential item functioning (DIF) was observed across genders for any of the 13 EES-C items, suggesting equitable and unbiased applicability for both male and female respondents. The five-point scoring method of the EES scale was consistent with the overall distribution of the items and subjects. Exercise empowerment was positively correlated with autonomous physical activity and psychological resilience.

Conclusion: The results of the study indicate that the EES-C possesses robust psychometric properties, rendering it suitable for application among Chinese college student populations. The adapted version of the EES-C provides a basis for further exploration of the predictive factors of physical activity in Chinese samples. The generalizability of our findings should be further verified in other populations in the future.