Psychometric properties of the physical activity enjoyment scale (PACES) in the context of Spanish university education
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v71.109792Keywords:
Enjoyment, Physical Education, university students, motivation, adherenceAbstract
Introduction: Enjoyment is a key factor for adherence to physical activity in the university setting.
Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale (PACES) questionnaire in the context of Spanish university teaching.
Methodology: The study involved 606 third-year students from the Primary Education Degree at the University of Seville, with a mean age of 21.32 years. To measure enjoyment in physical education classes, the Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale (PACES) by Moreno et al. (2008) was used, adapting the initial phrase to "When participating in the practical classes of the subject...".
Results: Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed a two-factor structure: Enjoyment and Boredom. Internal consistency was very high with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.94 for the complete questionnaire. The item-to-item correlations and corrected correlations indicated good homogeneity indicators.
Discussion: The results confirmed that the PACES scale is valid and reliable for measuring enjoyment in the context of university physical education. Future research is recommended to validate the scale in other university sport contexts and through sex-differentiated analyses.
Conclusions: The scale can be a useful tool to promote adherence to physical activity among university students, thereby contributing to the prevention of sport dropout and physical inactivity.
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