Adaptation of the “Attitudes Toward Physical Activity Scale” for Higher Education Students in Turkey

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to adapt the "Attitudes toward Physical Activity Scale" (APAS) for Turkish higher education students. Study was conducted during 2018-2019 autumn semester at a public university in the central Anatolia region of Turkey. The APAS was applied to 1021 voluntary university students from eleven different faculties and departments of the university. Descriptive statistics, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, internal consistency coefficients were used in statistical analysis. Exploratory factor analysis revealed a six factor solution explaining 60.2% of the variance. Then, confirmatory factor analysis on the 38 items showed good fit to the 6-dimension model according to the goodness-of-fit criteria. The psychometric data of the scale showed that the Turkish version of the scale for higher education students reached the required levels. As a result, the "Attitudes toward Physical Activity Scale" can be used in reliable and valid way at higher education students in Turkey at national or cross-cultural studies in examining physical activity attitudes.

Using Brain-Breaks® as a Technology Tool to Increase Attitude towards Physical Activity among Students in Singapore

“…This study is the first conducted in Southeast Asia among Singaporean students. The findings from this study are similar to the findings from previous studies investigating the impact of Brain Breaks ® videos on students aged 9 to 11 years old in China [25], Malaysia [16], Turkey [31], Lithuania [33], Poland [28] and Macedonia [32], students 12 years old [36], and students in higher education [31]. These previous studies found that students utilizing Brain Breaks ® videos had positive changes in their attitudes towards PA.…”

“…The seven scales in the original version of this questionnaire were validated for their reliabilities, uni-dimensionality, effectiveness of the response categories, and absence of gender differential item functioning (DIF) by Mok et al [30] using the Rasch analysis. A subsequent study by Dinc et al [31] updated the questionnaire and further enhanced internal consistency. The current study reported here made use of the updated version of APAS.…”

“…Brain Breaks ® videos are video exercises which average three-five min duration. Previous studies concluded that the use of Brain Breaks ® videos help develop positive changes in students' attitudes towards PA [28][29][30][31][32]. Students who completed the intervention did simple aerobic/movement exercises following the video instructions.…”