Physical Activity Involvement and Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Turkish Validity and Reliability of Parent-Reported Involvement Scale

Abstract

The aim of this study was to test Turkish the validity and reliability of Parent-Reported Involvement Scale: PRIS, and to determine activity involvement level of children with autism who have training table tennis as physical activity. Data were collected from 126 parents who have a child with autism. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were respectively used to test factor structure of the scale in Turkish language. The structure with 3-factor of the scale was analyzed by the Maximum Likelihood and Cronbach’s alphas was calculated for the subscales to evaluate its internal consistency. In addition, correlation between factors were examined with Pearson Correlation Analysis. According to conducted EFA results, the model consisted of 3 subscales. The CFA results proved that model fit indexes (χ2/df= 2.05, GFI= .88, CFI= .88, NFI= .91, SRMR= .09, RMSEA= .09) were within perfect compliance limits with acceptable and supported 3-factor structure of the scale. In addition, the factor loadings of the scale ranged from .48 to .98 and the Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficients were respectively measured as .87, .86, and .87 for “interest intensity”, “social bonding” and “identity expression” sub-dimensions. According to the results obtained, it could be assumed that structure with the 3-factor of the PRIS was a valid and reliable measurement tool to determine the level leisure involvement of children with autism towards leisure activity. Consequently, it may think that PRIS could be used in Turkish samples in the future research with autism children.