Psychometric Properties of the PLAY in a Cohort of Secondary School Student-Athletes.

Background: Physical literacy is the motivation, confidence, physical competence, knowledge, and understanding, enabling individuals to value and take responsibility for engagement in physical activities for life. While tools exist to measure physical literacy in most populations, the psychometric properties of the Physical Literacy Assessment for Youth (PLAY) tool in an older adolescent age group are currently unknown. The purpose of this work was to determine the psychometric properties of the PLAY tool, specifically the PLAY in an older adolescent age group (~14-18 years).

Methods: One hundred and fifty-one secondary school in-season student-athletes completed the PLAY, with construct validity assessed using an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA).

Results: Results from the EFA yielded a 7-factor model across the three subsections (environment, physical literacy self-description, relative rankings of literacies) of the PLAY, all with acceptable levels of internal consistency.

Conclusions: The PLAY produced acceptable estimates for construct validity and reliability, making it a useful tool for measuring physical literacy in secondary school student-athletes.