Psychometrics of the Preschool Physical Literacy Assessment Tool: A New Physical Literacy Tool for Early Childhood Years

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the model and psychometric properties of a tool for assessing gross motor skills in Iranian preschool children (18-48 months).
Method: This descriptive-exploratory study was conducted in a cross-sectional design. A multistage cluster sampling method was used to select 305 children from kindergartens in Tehran. The tool for assessing gross motor skills in preschool children was translated into Persian using the forward-backward translation method and its psychometric properties were evaluated by eight experts. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to analyze the data and model the main components of the tool. The tool's content validity was calculated using internal consistency and intra-class correlation coefficient to measure accuracy and repeatability.
Results: The results showed that the content validity of the tool, based on expert opinions, was 0.96, indicating an acceptable level. Moreover, the face validity was rated as very high with maximum confirmation from experts. In the confirmatory factor analysis, three main domains were identified and confirmed: "motor competence," "coordinated movements," and "motivation and enjoyment," which showed good fit with the theoretical model and statistical criteria. The internal consistency reliability coefficients, including composite reliability and Cronbach's alpha, were higher than 0.70, indicating an excellent value for the tool. Therefore, the tool for assessing gross motor skills in preschool children is a valid and reliable tool for assessing gross motor skills in 18-48-month-old children and can be used by researchers and child educators.