Development and Further Content Validation of the Motivation Assessment Tool for Physical Activity (MATPA) Among Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

An, M, Sasai, T, Ito, R, Inoue, M, Kusano, Y, Tabata, A, Bardid, F, Fitton Davies, K, Foweather, L, Knowles, ZR, Roberts, S, Rudd, J and Kato, T (2025) Development and Further Content Validation of the Motivation Assessment Tool for Physical Activity (MATPA) Among Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. ISSN 0162-3257

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Abstract

This study describes the content validity process, focusing on children, to create and validate a tool for assessing motivation toward out-of-school physical activity (PA) among children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) aged 6 to 17 years. Additionally, it establishes the eligible verbal communication age range necessary for its application. The initial development and content validity process with external experts is described elsewhere (An et al., 2025 under review). The MAT-PA was iteratively refined during the content validity process with twenty children (two with version 0.1, ten with version 0.2, and eight with version 0.3). Modifications were made based on feedback from children who completed the entire interview. The Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, Second Edition (VABS-2), assessed the age-equivalent for daily verbal communication skills required for the MAT-PA. Feedback from the twelve children who completed the entire interview process (two with version 0.1, six with version 0.2, and four with version 0.3) provided evidence supporting the tool’s content validity. Challenges with attention spans and verbal abilities limited full participation from the remaining eight children. Parent-reported VABS-2 scores indicated that the MAT-PA is suitable for children with ASD who have verbal communication skills equivalent to 3-year-olds (receptive) and 6-year-olds (expressive). The MAT-PA is the first tool specifically designed to explore the psychological needs and behavioral regulation of children with ASD, providing evidence of content validity. Future work should focus on improving the tool's reliability for trial integration, exploring its applicability across diverse contexts, and leveraging technology to boost scalability and impact.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This version of the article has been accepted for publication, after peer review (when applicable) and is subject to Springer Nature’s AM terms of use, but is not the Version of Record and does not reflect post-acceptance improvements, or any corrections. The Version of Record is available online at: http://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-025-06824-w
Uncontrolled Keywords:	13 Education; 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences; Developmental & Child Psychology; 39 Education; 42 Health sciences; 52 Psychology
Subjects:	R Medicine > RC Internal medicine > RC1200 Sports Medicine
Divisions:	Sport and Exercise Sciences
Publisher:	Springer
Date of acceptance:	30 March 2025
Date Deposited:	28 Apr 2025 09:33
Last Modified:	28 Apr 2025 09:45
DOI or ID number:	10.1007/s10803-025-06824-w
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/26271

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