Développement et validation du QP3A-j : un questionnaire auto-administré par les parents sur la participation aux activités en plein air des jeunes

Abstract

The benefits associated with children’s and adolescents’ participation in outdoor activities (OA) are well recognized, yet instruments designed to assess this participation, as well as the factors influencing it, remain limited. This article presents the development process of the parent-reported questionnaire on children’s and adolescents’ outdoor activity participation (QP3A-j), which assesses young people’s participation in various types of outdoor activities alongside family sociodemographic data, as well as the results of an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and a principal component analysis (PCA). Data were collected from 175 parents of 256 children and adolescents aged 5 to 15 years, recruited from various settings in Quebec. The EFA results indicate that 25 of the initial 34 items exhibit satisfactory psychometric properties, while the PCA shows that these items are organized into four dimensions: creativity, interest, sport participation, and parental sense of safety. The QP3A-j appears to be a promising tool for measuring participation in outdoor activities and supporting program evaluation.