School Physical Activity Policy Assessment (S-PAPA)

1. Abstract

The School Physical Activity Policy Assessment (S-PAPA) is an objective, multi-module survey instrument developed to quantify, evaluate, and monitor physical activity-related institutional policies within primary and elementary educational environments. Designed by a multidisciplinary team of kinesiology, public health, and physical education researchers—led by Monica A. F. Lounsbery, Thomas L. McKenzie, James R. Morrow Jr., and colleagues—the S-PAPA addresses the critical empirical gap between state-level statutory policy declarations and operational campus-level policy enactment. The assessment consists of 7 descriptive background items and 82 specific policy items systematically divided across three distinct conceptual modules: (a) Physical Education (40 items), (b) Recess (27 items), and (c) Other Before, During, and After School Programs (15 items), totaling 89 discrete variables. The instrument accommodates the complex architecture of school environments through a diverse response format that blends dichotomous choices, multichotomous categorical selections, checklists, and short-answer open-ended fields, requiring an average administration time of approximately 23 minutes.

Psychometrically, the S-PAPA operates primarily as a criterion-referenced formative audit and policy index rather than a unidimensional reflective psychometric scale. Its primary psychometric validation rests on comprehensive content and face validity established by panels of physical education and public health experts, alongside rigorous test-retest reliability evaluations across public elementary school campuses. Empirical field testing demonstrated high item-level stability, with percent agreements consistently exceeding 80% across modules and Cohen’s kappa (κ) coefficients ranging from moderate to almost perfect concordance across both formal written policy mandates and informal operational practices. By capturing both codified institutional policies and informal normative daily routines, the S-PAPA serves as a foundational assessment tool for behavioral epidemiologists, educational administrators, and public health researchers examining environmental and institutional determinants of pediatric physical activity.

2. Keywords

School Physical Activity Policy Assessment, S-PAPA, physical education policy, elementary school recess, active school environments, childhood obesity prevention, public health surveillance, school wellness policies, socio-ecological model, test-retest reliability, physical activity epidemiology, Comprehensive School Physical Activity Program

3. Authors

• Monica A. F. Lounsbery, Ph.D.: Professor of Kinesiology, Physical Education, and Educational Leadership. Dr. Lounsbery has served in senior academic leadership positions, including Dean of the College of Health and Human Services at California State University, Long Beach, and Director of the Physical Activity Policy Research Program at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). Her scholarship specializes in physical education pedagogy, physical activity policy development, and the environmental ecology of school settings.
• Thomas L. McKenzie, Ph.D., FACSM: Emeritus Professor of Exercise and Nutritional Sciences at San Diego State University. Dr. McKenzie is an internationally recognized expert in observational methodology, physical education intervention design (e.g., the SPARK program), and systems-level assessments of youth physical activity environments, including the developer of validated observation systems such as SOFIT and SOPLAY.
• James R. Morrow, Jr., Ph.D., FACSM, FNAK: Regents Professor Emeritus in the Department of Kinesiology, Health Promotion, and Recreation at the University of North Texas. Dr. Morrow is a prominent measurement and evaluation scholar in exercise science, serving extensively on national fitness advisory panels and public health advisory boards.
• Kathryn A. Holt, B.S.: Research associate and data specialist who contributed extensively to the instrument design, data management, and empirical test-retest psychometric evaluations associated with school health assessments at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
• Ronald G. Budnar, Jr., Ph.D.: Exercise physiologist and quantitative researcher who contributed to the statistical modeling, reliability analyses, and psychometric validation of the assessment protocol.

4. Purpose

The primary purpose of the School Physical Activity Policy Assessment (S-PAPA) is to provide an objective, standardized, and comprehensive methodology for capturing, categorizing, and scoring physical activity policies across elementary school campuses. Over the past three decades, public health organizations—including the World Health Organization (WHO), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM)—have consistently established that children and adolescents require a minimum of 60 minutes of daily moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) to optimize cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, metabolic, and neurocognitive development. Given that elementary schools engage children for approximately six to eight hours per day across critical formative stages of development, school campuses constitute the premier institutional venue for pediatric health promotion and obesity mitigation.

However, an enduring challenge within public health epidemiology and educational policy is the substantial disconnect commonly termed the “policy-to-practice gap.” Federal guidelines (such as the United States Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 and the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010) mandated that local educational agencies establish district-level wellness policies. Yet, historical surveillance data indicated that formal written policies enacted at the federal, state, or district level often failed to filter down into genuine, operationalized behavioral practices within classroom, gymnasium, and playground settings. The S-PAPA was intentionally designed to resolve this measurement deficiency by assessing physical activity policies along two simultaneous trajectories:

• Formal Written Policies: Explicit, documented institutional mandates originating from state, district, or school administrative charters regarding curriculum time, personnel qualifications, facility safety, and scheduling minimums.
• Informal / Operational Practices: Unwritten daily operational guidelines, administrative traditions, and classroom-level teacher decisions, such as using physical activity as punitive conditioning, withholding recess as an academic or behavioral sanction, or permitting weather-related alternatives for indoor movement.

By measuring policy across both dimensions, the S-PAPA serves clinical, epidemiological, and educational administration applications. In research contexts, it provides behavioral scientists with reliable, quantifiable environmental metrics that can be correlated with objective student-level outcomes, including accelerometer-measured physical activity, body mass index (BMI) percentiles, and academic achievement scores. In administrative and evaluation contexts, school districts utilize the S-PAPA as a diagnostic audit tool to identify campus-level policy compliance deficits, evaluate the fidelity of wellness policy implementations, guide professional development for educators, and allocate capital resources to address inequities in physical activity environments.

5. Psychological & Organizational Construct

The construct captured by the S-PAPA is multidimensional and grounded within institutional psychology, organizational behavior, and environmental health. Unlike traditional psychometric questionnaires that measure an individual’s latent psychological traits (such as self-efficacy, trait anxiety, or intrinsic motivation), the S-PAPA measures an organizational policy construct: the institutionalization of supportive health behaviors within school environments. This construct reflects the degree to which an educational institution creates, maintains, and enforces structural rules, schedules, resources, and sociocultural norms that facilitate regular moderate-to-vigorous physical activity.

The instrument operationalizes this institutional construct across three interdependent modules, preceded by general administrative contextual items:

1. Background Administrative Characteristics (7 Items)

This preliminary section gathers baseline institutional demographics that moderate policy enactment. Variables include total student enrollment, student-to-teacher ratios, grade-level configurations, administrative titles of respondents, and general campus socioeconomic indicators (e.g., Title I status or participation rates in the National School Lunch Program). These variables establish the contextual framework within which physical activity policies must operate.

2. Module A: Physical Education (40 Items)

Physical Education (PE) represents the primary structured curricular venue through which schools provide formal movement instruction, physical literacy education, and physiological conditioning. The S-PAPA operationalizes PE policy across several core dimensions:

• Curricular Allocation and Mandated Minutes: Measures the statutory and operational minutes of PE scheduled per week across each distinct grade level (Kindergarten through 5th/6th grade), assessing compliance with established national benchmarks (e.g., 150 minutes per week of elementary PE).
• Instructional Personnel Qualifications: Evaluates whether PE is delivered by state-certified, licensed physical education specialists versus generalist classroom elementary teachers, alongside requirements for ongoing professional development.
• Class Size Parity: Examines whether institutional rules enforce student-to-teacher ratios in PE classes that match general academic classroom thresholds, preventing gymnasium overcrowding that degrades active learning time.
• Exemptions, Waivers, and Substitutions: Assesses formal policies that permit students to bypass mandatory physical education for cognitive remediation, test preparation, band, or medical conditions.
• Assessment and Accountability: Quantifies the use of standardized fitness batteries (e.g., FitnessGram), health-related fitness testing protocols, and letter-grading practices tied to state physical education standards.
• Instructional Context and Environment: Assesses rules regarding uniform dress requirements, indoor versus outdoor facility access, and indoor emergency provisions during inclement weather.

3. Module B: Recess (27 Items)

Recess represents an unstructured, student-directed break period during the academic day that fosters spontaneous physical activity, peer socialization, and cognitive decompression. Module B captures the operational policies governing this segment:

• Scheduled Opportunity: The frequency, duration, and scheduling placement of daily recess breaks across all elementary grade tiers.
• Withholding Policies: Explicit evaluation of whether administrative or classroom rules prohibit or permit the punitive withholding of recess as a behavioral disciplinary tactic or as make-up time for unfinished academic work.
• Environmental Infrastructure and Supervision: Audits the provision of dedicated equipment (balls, jump ropes, play structures), playground supervision staffing ratios, and mandatory safety training for playground monitors.
• Active Play Promotion: Assesses structured interventions implemented during recess, such as semi-structured games led by trained staff or zoning of play areas to ensure equitable access across gender and age groups.

4. Module C: Other Before, During, and After School Programs (15 Items)

This module captures supplementary physical activity opportunities that occur outside formal physical education and regular recess periods, reflecting a comprehensive school-wide health model:

• Active Transportation: Policies and infrastructural initiatives supporting safe walking and bicycling to school, such as Safe Routes to School (SRTS) partnerships, crossing guard deployments, and bicycle storage facilities.
• Classroom-Based Physical Activity Breaks: Administrative expectations or formal scheduling of short (3–10 minute) movement intervals (e.g., energizers, brain breaks) integrated into academic instructional time.
• Intramural and Extracurricular Offerings: Availability of non-elimination sports clubs, running programs, and after-school active recreation programs open to all students regardless of athletic competency.
• Joint-Use / Shared-Use Agreements: Formal legal contracts permitting public community access to school sports facilities (gymnasia, tracks, fields, playgrounds) outside standard instructional hours, alongside community use of municipal facilities by the school.

6. Theoretical Framework

The architectural design and diagnostic logic of the S-PAPA are anchored in two seminal, intersecting behavioral and organizational theories: the Socio-Ecological Model (SEM) and the Theory of Policy Implementation in Educational Systems.

The Socio-Ecological Model of Physical Activity

Rooted in Urie Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory and adapted for behavioral medicine and physical activity epidemiology by Kenneth R. McLeroy and James F. Sallis, the Socio-Ecological Model posits that individual human behavior (e.g., a child choosing to be physically active) is not solely determined by personal, intrapsychic factors such as self-efficacy, biological predisposition, or attitudes. Instead, behavior is the dynamic product of multi-tiered, reciprocal interactions occurring across nested structural tiers:

• Intrapersonal Tier: Biological factors, motor competency, and individual motivation.
• Interpersonal Tier: Family support, teacher encouragement, and peer socialization.
• Organizational / Institutional Tier: The rules, schedules, structural environments, and formal operating policies of organizations such as schools.
• Community / Built Environment Tier: Neighborhood walkability, park access, and community recreational resources.
• Public Policy Tier: Legislative statutory mandates, national curriculum standards, and state educational codes.

The S-PAPA operates explicitly at the intersection between the Public Policy and Organizational / Institutional tiers. The conceptual premise is that organizational policies represent structural determinants that exert continuous, population-level influence over behavioral opportunities. When an elementary school institutionalizes a policy mandating 150 minutes of weekly physical education directed by a certified specialist and bans the punitive withholding of recess, it establishes a supportive built and regulatory environment that systematically increases physical activity opportunities for every enrolled student, circumventing the limitations of individual-level behavior change interventions.

Policy-Implementation Framework and the Comprehensive School Physical Activity Program

From an organizational psychology perspective, the S-PAPA integrates Everett Rogers’s Diffusion of Innovations theory and modern policy-implementation models. In public education, the official adoption of a written policy (e.g., a district wellness mandate) does not guarantee implementation fidelity at the classroom level. Unwritten norms, organizational inertia, resource constraints, and competing academic accountabilities frequently undermine policy execution.

The S-PAPA reflects this organizational dynamic by disaggregating formal written rules from actual everyday administrative and instructional practices. Furthermore, the structural design of the S-PAPA directly mirrors the Comprehensive School Physical Activity Program (CSPAP) conceptual framework promulgated by the CDC and the Society of Health and Physical Educators (SHAPE America). The CSPAP framework dictates that multi-component school programs must synthesize: (1) high-quality physical education as the curricular cornerstone; (2) physical activity during school (primarily recess and classroom-integrated movement); (3) physical activity before and after school (intramurals, clubs, and active commuting); (4) staff involvement; and (5) family and community engagement. Modules A, B, and C of the S-PAPA directly assess the policy infrastructure underlying these core components.

7. Validity

Establishing validity for an institutional policy assessment tool requires a different methodological orientation than validating an individual psychological scale measuring an underlying latent trait. Because policy items represent an environmental audit index of institutional realities rather than internal psychological states, validation centers on content validity, construct/criterion validity, and convergent validity with objective physical activity measures.

Content and Face Validity

The content validity of the S-PAPA was established through a multi-stage iterative design process led by an expert panel of behavioral scientists, kinesiology professors, national physical education pedagogical experts, and public school administrative practitioners. The team conducted extensive reviews of state physical education frameworks, national recommendations from the CDC and the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE, now SHAPE America), and existing school environment checklists (such as the CDC’s School Health Index). Item phrasing, categorical response options, and terminology were systematically refined across multiple pilot iterations to ensure that the survey captured all meaningful variations in policy mechanisms while maintaining clarity for diverse school respondents (principals, PE specialists, and classroom teachers).

Construct and Criterion-Related Validity

Construct validity in the S-PAPA is supported by its ability to differentiate accurately between schools possessing varying levels of institutional resources, administrative orientations, and district governance environments. In criterion-related validation trials, S-PAPA scores have been contrasted against verified objective records, such as master school bell schedules, published district curriculum guides, and official collective bargaining agreements governing teacher duty allocations. The high degree of concordance between administrative self-report on the S-PAPA and third-party documentary analysis confirmed that respondents provide factually representative data regarding organizational operations.

Convergent and Predictive Validity

The critical empirical test of the S-PAPA’s validity is its predictive utility: do higher policy scores on the S-PAPA correlate with increased physical activity among students? Multiple validation studies have utilized validated direct observation tools—most notably the System for Observing Fitness Instruction Time (SOFIT) and the System for Observing Play and Leisure Activity in Youth (SOPLAY)—to assess convergent validity:

• Physical Education Module Concordance: Schools documenting compliant physical education policies on Module A (e.g., specialist-led instruction, absence of academic waivers) demonstrated significantly higher percentages of class time spent in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA ≥ 50% of class time) during independent SOFIT direct observations.
• Recess Module Concordance: Schools with explicit written policies protecting scheduled recess time and prohibiting the withholding of recess demonstrated higher observed student physical activity levels during lunch and recess periods during SOPLAY evaluations.
• Exclusionary Policy Validity: Campus policies that permitted the disciplinary denial of physical activity directly predicted lower overall campus-wide daily step counts and activity counts captured via pediatric pedometer and accelerometer surveillance.

8. Reliability

The definitive psychometric evaluation of the S-PAPA was documented by Lounsbery, McKenzie, Morrow, Holt, and Budnar (2011) in their foundational validation study examining the test-retest reliability of the instrument across public elementary schools. Reliability evaluation was critical due to the potential vulnerability of administrative self-report instruments to recall bias, social desirability, and respondent ambiguity.

Test-Retest Methodology

To evaluate temporal stability, the complete S-PAPA instrument was administered across two separate observation points spaced approximately 14 to 21 days apart—an interval long enough to attenuate recall memory effects but brief enough to prevent true institutional policy modifications from occurring. Respondents across participating elementary schools completed the modules independently during both administration windows.

Statistical Coefficients and Empirical Results

Because the S-PAPA consists of a mixture of categorical, nominal, ordinal, and continuous variables, reliability was assessed using percent agreement alongside chance-corrected statistical coefficients: Cohen’s kappa (κ) for dichotomous and multichotomous categorical items, and Intraclass Correlation Coefficients (ICC) or Spearman rank-order correlations for continuous/interval measures (such as scheduled minutes per week).

• Overall Concordance: Across all three modules, the overall mean percent agreement between Test 1 and Test 2 was exceptionally high, consistently exceeding 85% to 92% across the 82 core policy items.
• Cohen’s Kappa Distribution: Item-level kappa values spanned from moderate to almost perfect agreement:
  • Substantial to almost perfect agreement (κ = 0.61 to 1.00) was observed for over 70% of the discrete policy items, particularly those addressing formal structural rules such as the presence of a full-time certified PE teacher, state fitness testing implementation, and the physical availability of a dedicated gymnasium.
  • Moderate agreement (κ = 0.41 to 0.60) was observed for items capturing variable informal practices, such as the exact frequency of teachers using exercise as punitive conditioning or the precise frequency of classroom-based physical activity breaks.
  • Only a minimal fraction of items (<5%) demonstrated poor reliability (κ < 0.40), leading to the subsequent rewording or structural consolidation of those ambiguous questions in the final version of the tool.
• Module-Specific Reliability Profiles:
  • Physical Education (Module A): Mean percent agreement exceeded 88%; kappa values for formal policy indicators (e.g., class size mandates, credentialing requirements) averaged κ > 0.75.
  • Recess (Module B): Demonstrated high temporal stability (percent agreement > 86%), with items measuring formal scheduled recess minutes and weather guidelines demonstrating ICCs and kappas > 0.80.
  • Other Programs (Module C): Yielded high stability regarding the presence of formal after-school sports clubs, joint-use agreements, and Safe Routes to School programming (mean percent agreement > 85%).

Because the S-PAPA operates as a formative environmental checklist rather than a reflective psychometric scale (where all items are presumed to reflect a single underlying latent psychological construct), internal consistency metrics such as Cronbach’s alpha are theoretically inappropriate and are not utilized. An institution’s policy regarding PE teacher certification does not conceptually mandate that it must also operate an after-school walking club; therefore, high inter-item correlation across disparate operational domains is neither expected nor psychometrically required.

9. Factor Analysis & Structural Architecture

Within classical test theory, Factor Analysis—encompassing both Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA)—is utilized to identify unobserved latent dimensions that account for the shared variance among observed continuous indicator variables. However, the psychometric classification of the S-PAPA requires an understanding of the distinction between reflective measurement models and formative (composite) measurement models.

Formative vs. Reflective Structural Models

In a reflective model (such as a depression inventory or a personality questionnaire), the latent construct causes the item responses; if the latent construct increases, all item scores are expected to rise simultaneously, creating strong inter-item covariation suitable for factor analytic decomposition. In contrast, the S-PAPA is an environmental policy index constructed under a formative paradigm:

• The observed policies form or define the institutional environment. A school may possess an outstanding, fully compliant physical education program (scoring high on Module A) while simultaneously enforcing restrictive, inadequate recess policies (scoring low on Module B).
• Forcing these independent operational practices into a continuous unidimensional or orthogonal factor structure can distort the true institutional landscape. Therefore, classical CFA model fit indices (such as Root Mean Square Error of Approximation [RMSEA] or Comparative Fit Index [CFI]) do not apply to the overall 82-item instrument in the manner they do to psychological scales.

Dimensionality and Domain Architecture

Rather than relying on continuous latent factor extraction, the structural validity of the S-PAPA is supported by domain-specific modular decomposition. The instrument’s architecture organizes policy into three substantive, structurally independent domains that reflect administrative reality:

1. Curricular Policy Dimension (Physical Education): Focuses on formal curricular mandates, pedagogical credentials, instructional duration, and student evaluation.
2. Discretionary Play Dimension (Recess): Focuses on non-curricular scheduled breaks, punitive practices, behavioral policies, and playground environments.
3. Ecological Extension Dimension (Before, During, and After School): Focuses on community integration, active commuting, classroom breaks, and facility sharing.

Empirical analyses of the S-PAPA support this three-module division. Inter-module correlation analyses indicate low-to-moderate associations between Module A, Module B, and Module C scores across school samples. This empirical independence proves that assessing only one operational domain (e.g., examining physical education alone) cannot serve as a valid proxy for an elementary school’s broader physical activity policy landscape, validating the multi-module architecture of the S-PAPA.

10. Instrument / Measurement Tool

The operational administration, architecture, and scoring conventions of the School Physical Activity Policy Assessment (S-PAPA) are structured as follows:

Instrument Specifications

• Target Respondent: Elementary school administrators, principals, vice-principals, physical education department heads, or school health committee leaders. Because specific modules address operational details, administration may involve a collaborative approach (e.g., physical education teachers completing Module A; school principals completing Modules B and C).
• Target Setting: Public, charter, and private elementary schools (grades K–5 or K–6).
• Total Administration Time: Approximately 23 minutes for the complete completion of all three modules and background items.
• Total Item Count: 89 items total (7 Background Items + 82 Policy Items):
  • Administrative Background: 7 items
  • Module A (Physical Education): 40 items
  • Module B (Recess): 27 items
  • Module C (Before, During, and After School): 15 items
• Item Response Formats:
  • Dichotomous (Yes / No): Used for binary policy existence (e.g., “Does your school have a written policy prohibiting withholding recess?”).
  • Multichotomous (Multiple Choice): Used for selecting specific institutional categories, frequency tiers, or qualified personnel types.
  • Checklists / Multiple Response: Used for auditing lists of available equipment, facility types, or acceptable justifications for policy exemptions.
  • Open-Ended Continuous: Used for entering exact numbers (e.g., minutes per week of scheduled physical education; daily duration of recess in minutes).

Scoring Protocol and Interpretive Framework

The S-PAPA can be scored using two distinct, complementary methods depending on the research or diagnostic objective:

1. Item-Level Surveillance Analysis: Items are analyzed as individual categorical or continuous policy indicators (e.g., calculating the percentage of schools within a state that ban physical activity as punishment, or the median minutes of PE delivered per week).
2. Subscale Policy Index Scoring: For multivariate statistical modeling, researcher teams frequently compute standardized subscale scores for each module (ranging from 0% to 100% compliance with national recommendations) or composite index scores. Higher scores indicate greater alignment with evidence-based public health guidelines (e.g., NASPE/SHAPE America standards for daily recess and weekly PE minutes). Items reflecting detrimental practices (such as withholding physical activity as discipline or using exercise as punishment) are reverse-scored prior to composite summation.

11. Permissions & Fee and Test Year

• Initial Instrumentation Year: 2011 (Lounsbery et al., initial test-retest reliability documentation and field implementation). Formal peer-reviewed dissemination and wide-scale utilization expanded throughout 2012 and 2013.
• Copyright & Intellectual Property: The School Physical Activity Policy Assessment (S-PAPA) is copyrighted by the instrument authors: Monica A. F. Lounsbery, Thomas L. McKenzie, James R. Morrow Jr., and Kathryn A. Holt.
• Licensing and Fee Structure: The S-PAPA was developed primarily with institutional and public academic research support to advance physical activity epidemiology and child health surveillance. The tool is generally made available free of charge for non-commercial academic research, public health surveillance, school district self-evaluations, and educational improvement initiatives.
• Permissions and Inquiries: Researchers, health departments, and school administrators wishing to adapt, electronically deploy, or translate the S-PAPA should contact the primary corresponding author (Dr. Monica A. F. Lounsbery) through university institutional channels (e.g., California State University, Long Beach or University of Nevada, Las Vegas archival research departments). Proper bibliographic attribution of the original validation studies must accompany all publications, technical reports, and survey deployments.

12. References

The following academic publications and foundational sources document the psychometric validation, theoretical basis, and direct empirical applications of the S-PAPA and its associated environmental observation paradigms:

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2013). Comprehensive School Physical Activity Programs: A Guide for Schools. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/physicalactivity/cspap.htm
• Lounsbery, M. A. F., McKenzie, T. L., Morrow, J. R., Holt, K. A., & Budnar, R. G. (2011). School Physical Activity Policy Assessment (S-PAPA): Test-Retest Reliabilities. Manuscript submitted for publication / Research Technical Report, University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
• Lounsbery, M. A. F., McKenzie, T. L., Morrow, J. R., Monnat, S. M., & Holt, K. A. (2013). District and school physical education policies: Implications for physical education and recess time. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 45(Suppl 1), S131–S141. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-012-9427-9
• McKenzie, T. L., Sallis, J. F., & Nader, P. R. (1991). SOFIT: System for Observing Fitness Instruction Time. Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, 11(2), 195–205. https://doi.org/10.1123/jtpe.11.2.195
• McKenzie, T. L., Marshall, S. J., Sallis, J. F., & Conway, T. L. (2006). Leisure-time physical activity in school environments: An observational study using SOPLAY. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 30(5), 443–451. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2005.12.004
• McLeroy, K. R., Bibeau, D., Steckler, A., & Glanz, K. (1988). An ecological perspective on health promotion programs. Health Education Quarterly, 15(4), 351–377. https://doi.org/10.1177/109019818801500401
• Morrow, J. R., Jackson, A. W., Disch, J. G., & Mood, D. P. (2015). Measurement and Evaluation in Human Performance (5th ed.). Human Kinetics. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781718209015
• National Association for Sport and Physical Education. (2008). Comprehensive School Physical Activity Programs [Position Statement]. Reston, VA: AAHPERD / SHAPE America.
• Sallis, J. F., Cervero, R. B., Ascher, W., Henderson, K. A., Kraft, M. K., & Kerr, J. (2006). An ecological approach to creating active living communities. Annual Review of Public Health, 27, 297–322. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.publhealth.27.021405.102100

13. Items of the Scale