Pauli Rintala

This study investigates the determinants of parents’ intentions to support physical activity in their children with cerebral palsy (CP), guided by the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). It is hypothesized that parental intention to suppor...

Editorial for outgoing and incoming Editor-in-Chief of European Journal of Adapted Physical Activity, 2023

Background: Meeting daily guidelines for physical activity, screen time, and sleep duration is associated with a host of health indicators for youth. In this cross-sectional observational study, we investigated the associations between adherence to the movement guidelines and health-related outcomes among youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Methods: Parents of youth with ASD (10–17 years) from seven countries and regions were invited to provide online proxy-reports for child’s movement behaviors (i.e., physical activity, sleep and screen time), and health-related outcomes (i.e., body mass index [BMI], general health, and quality of life). A series of multiple linear regression analyses were used to examine the associations between meeting movement guidelines and health-related outcomes, adjusted for covariates. Results: The final sample consisted of 1165 youth with ASD. Compared with youth meeting all three guidelines, a higher BMI z-score was observed in those who met no guidelines (B = 0.62, P = 0.04), “sedentary time only” (B = 0.60, P = 0.047), and “physical activity plus sleep only” (B = 0.85, P = 0.04). Compared with meeting all three guidelines, meeting no guidelines was associated with poorer general health (B = − 0.46, P = 0.02). Further, compared with youth meeting all three guidelines, a lower quality of life score was observed in those who met no guidelines (B = − 0.47, P = 0.02) and “physical activity only” (B = − 0.62, P = 0.03). Lastly, there were dose–response associations between the number of guidelines met and all three health-related outcomes (all P_trend < 0.05). Conclusions: In conclusion, meeting more 24-h movement guidelines was generally associated with more favorable health-related outcomes in youth with ASD. The low level of adherence to all three guidelines (2.0%) suggests the urgent need to promote the adoption of all the guidelines in this group.

Sport has been promoted as a means of increasing the social inclusion of persons with intellectual disabilities. Suitable tools for evaluating this claim are not readily available. The aim of this study was to develop a self-report tool for use by people with intellectual disabilities regarding the social inclusion they experience in sport and in the community. A three-phase process was used. In the first phase an item bank of questionnaire items was created and field-tested with 111 participants. Initial factor analysis identified 42 items which were further evaluated in Phase 2 with 941 participants from six European countries. Construct validity was established first through Exploratory and then Confirmatory factor analysis. These analyses identified ten items relating to inclusion in sports and ten to inclusion in local communities. A third phase checked the usability and test-retest reliability of the short form with a further 228 participants. In all, 1280 athletes and non-disabled partners were involved from eight countries. This short social inclusion questionnaire has been shown to be a reliable and valid measure for use transnationally. Further psychometric properties remain to be tested; notably its sensitivity to change resulting from interventions aimed at promoting social inclusion.

Determining disability prevalence is a growing area for population statistics, especially among young adolescents. The Washington Group on Disability Statistics is one source of reporting disabilities through functional difficulties. Yet, young adolescents self-reporting through this measure is in its infancy. The purpose of this study was to carry out an intra-rater test-retest reliability study on a modified set of items for self-reporting functional difficulties. Young adolescents (N = 74; boys = 64%; age M = 13.7, SD = 1.8) with special educational needs in Finland completed a self-reported version of the Child Functioning Module in a supervised classroom. The second administration took place two weeks later. Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and Kappa (k) statistics were used to test the reliability of the items, and interpretation took place through Landis and Koch, and Cohen, respectively. The majority of items had substantial or moderate agreement, although there was only fair agreement for self-care (ICC = 0.59), concentration (ICC = 0.50), and routine changes (ICC = 0.54). Kappa statistics of behavior control were interpreted to be large (k = 0.65), and seeing (k = 0.49), walking (k = 0.49), and speaking (k = 0.49) difficulties were moderate. The majority of the items in the self-reported version of the Child Functioning Module can be used in a scale format, although some caution may be required on items of self-care and concentration when used as a dichotomous variable.

Determining disability prevalence is an important area for population statistics, especially among young adolescents. The Washington Group on Disability Statistics is one source of reporting disabilities through functional difficulties. However, young adolescents self-reporting this measure is in its infancy. The purpose of this study was to carry out an intra-rater test-retest reliability study on a modified set of items for self-reporting functional difficulties. Young adolescents (n=74; boys=64%; age m=13.7, SD=1.8) completed a self-reported version of the child functioning module in a supervised classroom. The second administration took place two weeks later. Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and Kappa (k) statistics were used to test reliability of the items, and interpretation through Landis & Koch, and Cohen, respectively. The majority of items had substantial or moderate agreement, although there was only fair agreement for self-care (ICC=0.59), concentration (ICC=0.50), and routine (ICC=0.54). Kappa statistics of behaviour were interpreted to be large (k=0.65), and seeing (k=0.49), walking (k=0.49), and speaking (k=0.49) difficulties were moderate. The majority of the items in the self-reported version of the child functioning module can be used in a scale format, although some caution may be required on items of self-care and concentration when used as a dichotomous variable.

This is an editorial for 2019 Volume 12, Issue 2.

Early identification of children with motor difficulties, such as developmental coordination disorder (DCD), is essential. At present only a fraction of children with DCD are identified. The purpose of the study was to systematically review the literature from 1994 to 2017 on observational screening tools and to evaluate the validity, reliability and usability of the questionnaires used. The review of the literature was conducted to synthesize the data from five electronic databases for children aged 6–12 years. The following databases were searched: Academic search Elite (EBSCO), ERIC (ProQuest), MEDLINE (Ovid), PsycINFO (ProQuest), and SPORTDiscus with Full Text (EBSCO). The studies meeting our inclusion criteria were analyzed to assess the psychometric properties and feasibility of the measures. The literature search retrieved 1907 potentially relevant publications. The final number of studies that met the inclusion criteria of our systematic review was 45. There were 11 questionnaires for parents, teachers and children. None of the questionnaires was valid for population-based screening as the only measurement tool. There are many challenges in using initial screening tools to identify children with motor difficulties. Nevertheless, many promising questionnaires are being developed that can provide information on functional skills and limitations across a variety of tasks and settings in the daily lives of children with DCD. The review provides much needed information about the current scales used in many clinical, educational and research settings. Implications for assessing psychometric properties of the developed questionnaires and further research are discussed. PROSPERO, CRD42018087532 .

The first year as Editor-in-Chief is behind me. It has been personally challenging, but also educational in many ways. I have been a regular manuscript reviewer for decades, as an Editorial Board member for Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly (APAQ), but being in charge is another angle to the same process. As the editor, you have to make a lot more decisions on several things, such as 'Is the manuscript within the scope of the journal?', 'Who might be the best reviewers for this particular topic?', 'Who do you ask next if the ones you selected decline?' and so on. It is a constant learning process, and at times difficult make correct decisions all the time. During this past year the journal had to go through the process of changing the journal platform due to disturbances from hackers (Kudlacek, 2018). The new ACTAVIA journal system seems to be working well. Moreover, due to editor transfer, there is a continuous need to find enough finances and manual assistance to handle the publication process, including layout and proofreading phases. We are still searching the most convenient way to do it. I have been fortunate to have Dr. Kwok Ng as my assistant editor. He has been an enormous help and many times a vital person to tackle the digital and technical problems we have confronted during this transition. He introduced a ready-made, self-explanatory template for the submitting authors and created a tutorial video to use. Templates are common across many electronically publishing journals and is used to speed up the publication process following acceptance. I want to take this opportunity to thank Kwok for his commitment to improve EUJAPA, and his efforts to help me to succeed in my role as Editor. Adapted Physical Activity is a very large discipline and spans over several areas of sport and exercise sciences. Additionally, the published research can be quantitative or qualitative in nature, which brings another flavor into the review process. EUJAPA faces the similar challenges to its 'big brother' APAQ as described in the editorial of APAQ's current Editor, Prof. Jeffrey Martin (2017). In addition, EUJAPA is an international journal, which publishes articles in English. There are many non-native speakers of English and there are extra hurdles in finding a proper way of expressing ourselves as authors, reviewers as well as editors. In spite of the above mentioned challenges,