Physical activity-related health competence as an integrative objective in exercise therapy and health sports – conception and validation of a short questionnaire

The survey was part of a research project headed by Prof. Dr. Gerhard Huber (University of Heidelberg) and Prof. Dr. Gorden Sudeck (University of Tübingen). The research project was funded by the German pension insurance (“Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund”; funding code: 0422-40-64-50-16).

The courses selected were based on the criteria that new participants or returning participants could also be recruited if possible, substantial fluctuation rates were expected, and the courses were not primarily preparatory courses for a competition. As a result, mainly fitness, prevention, and health-related courses as well as beginners’ courses in sports were selected.

Two plausible modifications were needed for the measurement model for motor function: Firstly, in study B in particular, there was a clearly insufficient factor loading for motor function for flexibility (λ = 0.36; SMC = 0.13). This was understandable considering customary dimension approaches to motor skills, which see flexibility as determined primarily by passive structures of the musculoskeletal system and delimit this from the energy and information-processing motor abilities (e. g., Bös et al. 2002). Secondly, the modification index for the covariance of the measurement errors of the total scores for strength and coordination in study B (M.I. = 53.72) indicated that the two indicators still had a common variance that was not represented by the latent construct of motor function. For comparability of the evaluations, flexibility was excluded for both studies and the covariance between the measurement errors of the total scores for strength and coordination was allowed (cf. Fig. 3).