Measuring Early Childhood Educators’ Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior–Related Self-Efficacy: A Systematic Review of Tools

Abstract

Early childhood educators’ (ECEs) self-efficacy is often predictive of their ability and likelihood of promoting healthy activity behaviors in childcare settings. To date, ECEs’ physical activity and sedentary behavior–related self-efficacy has been measured in a variety of ways in childcare-based research, creating difficulty when comparing across studies. To identify the different approaches ECEs’ self-efficacy is assessed, the current study aimed to compare all existing tools that quantitatively measure physical activity and sedentary behavior–related self-efficacy of pre- and in-service ECEs. Seven online databases were searched for original, peer-reviewed, English-written journal articles. Articles were deemed eligible if they employed a tool which measured physical activity and/or sedentary behavior–related self-efficacy of pre- or in-service ECEs. A total of 16 studies were included in this review, and 13 unique tools were identified. All tools measured task self-efficacy ( n = 13), while only 1 tool measured barrier self-efficacy, and approximately half of the tools ( n = 7; 54%) reported on the validity and reliability. Great variability existed among the self-efficacy items included in the tools; however, common constructs included: teaching/leading physical activity, fundamental movement skill development, and physical activity programming. Very few tools mentioned sedentary behavior ( n = 2) and outdoor/risky play ( n = 2). Given the low number of studies that tested validity and reliability of their self-efficacy tools, the lack of consideration for barrier self-efficacy, and the paucity of tools that fully encompassed physical activity, sedentary behavior, and outdoor play considerations for ECEs, future research is needed to validate a new, reliable tool.

Training Pre-Service Early Childhood Educators in Physical Activity (TEACH): Protocol for a Quasi-Experimental Study

“…Our research team systematically reviewed physical activity and sedentary behaviour-related self-efficacy tools for ECEs; based on the findings from this review, no such tool emerged from the literature to meet the specific needs of this project [ 40 ]. Consequently, we created a 31-item questionnaire to assess ECEs’ Confidence in Outdoor Movement, Physical Activity, and Sedentary and Screen behaviours ( ECE-COMPASS ) [ 40 ].…”

“…Our research team systematically reviewed physical activity and sedentary behaviour-related self-efficacy tools for ECEs; based on the findings from this review, no such tool emerged from the literature to meet the specific needs of this project [ 40 ]. Consequently, we created a 31-item questionnaire to assess ECEs’ Confidence in Outdoor Movement, Physical Activity, and Sedentary and Screen behaviours ( ECE-COMPASS ) [ 40 ]. This questionnaire, created by our team using Bandura’s Guide for Constructing Self-Efficacy Scales [ 41 ], assesses task (21 items) and barrier (10 items) self-efficacy and showed high internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha > 0.90 across task and barrier subscales) and modest temporal stability (test-retest statistics > 0.60) [ 40 ].…”

“…Consequently, we created a 31-item questionnaire to assess ECEs’ Confidence in Outdoor Movement, Physical Activity, and Sedentary and Screen behaviours ( ECE-COMPASS ) [ 40 ]. This questionnaire, created by our team using Bandura’s Guide for Constructing Self-Efficacy Scales [ 41 ], assesses task (21 items) and barrier (10 items) self-efficacy and showed high internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha > 0.90 across task and barrier subscales) and modest temporal stability (test-retest statistics > 0.60) [ 40 ]. This survey will be administered online at baseline, post-intervention, and 3-month follow-up, and composite scores for task and barrier self-efficacy will be calculated.…”

Systematic review of educator behaviours associated with physical activity of early years children

“…An outline of the included search terms is shown in Table 1 and a complete example of a search strategy is in Appendix A. Incorporating the terms physical activity, physical fitness, motor development and sedentary behaviour was deemed appropriate in our search terms due to the interrelated nature of these terms in the early years, and similar terms have been used in previous studies (Szpunar et al, 2021). In early years settings, the integration of motor skill activities (such as jumping, galloping and hopping) to engage in physical activity and movement typically overlaps with research aimed at decreasing sedentary behaviour or understanding motor development trajectories (Buckler & Bredin, 2021;Buckler et al, 2023).…”

Health Education Intervention Programs in Early Childhood Education: A Systematic Review

“…Due to the complexity of health education and the age characteristics of the age group examined, it is difficult to measure the effectiveness of health education interventions in an institutional environment; therefore, many studies are carried out mainly with the involvement of parents and teachers. So, it is not surprising that in the field of early childhood health education, previous systematic reviews focused primarily on parents or teachers [29][30][31][32], possibly on a specific health education area (oral health, obesity) [33][34][35][36][37][38] or on a specific type of disease [39,40]. A comprehensive review of health interventions for the 3-6-year-old age group within an institutional setting has not been carried out so far.…”