Active Where? Surveys

Abstract

The Active Where? Surveys were developed as part of a collaborative research project designed to create robust, self-report measures assessing how the physical environment influences physical activity and eating behaviors among children and youth. The primary goal was to measure environmental correlates linked to chronic diseases, such as obesity. These measures focus on four key settings: home, neighborhood, park, and school. The surveys are structured for completion by parent-child dyads, parent-adolescent dyads, or adolescents individually, ensuring applicability across a wide age range of youth. Data collection occurred across three distinct U.S. cities (San Diego, Cincinnati, and Boston) to enhance the generalizability of the findings and validate the measures across diverse physical and social environments.

Keywords

physical activity, environmental correlates, youth, obesity, built environment, neighborhood safety, walkability, self-report survey, test-retest reliability

Authors

Jacqueline Kerr, Ph.D., James Sallis, Ph.D., Dori E. Rosenberg, M.P.H., Gregory Norman, Ph.D., Brian Saelens, Ph.D., Nefertiti Durant, Ph.D.

Purpose

The principal purpose of the Active Where? Surveys is to provide quantitative, self-report instruments capable of assessing aspects of the environment that are relevant to the physical activity and dietary habits of youth. Recognizing that environmental measures previously focused primarily on adults, this study aimed to develop measures specifically tailored to the unique perceptions and experiences of children and adolescents across various settings, including their homes, neighborhoods, parks, and schools.

The instruments are designed to be flexible, utilizing separate questionnaires adapted for different reporting configurations: parent and young child, parent and adolescent, or adolescent self-report. This multi-informant approach allows researchers to examine potential differences in perception regarding the neighborhood environment between youth and their parents, aiding in the determination of the most reliable source of data for specific environmental factors.

Construct

The Active Where? Surveys primarily measure the construct of the Perceived Environment as it relates to health behaviors in youth. This construct encompasses several dimensions of the built and social environment believed to influence behavioral determinants of chronic disease risk, specifically physical inactivity and poor eating behaviors. Key sub-constructs measured include:

• Accessibility and Proximity: Time/distance to commercial and recreation locations (e.g., parks, shops, restaurants).
• Environmental Barriers: Perceived obstacles to walking, biking, or engaging in activity in the neighborhood or parks (e.g., traffic, crime, lack of infrastructure).
• Home and School Environments: Availability of physical activity objects and specific types of food, as well as household rules governing sedentary behavior (e.g., TV time) and playing outside.
• Aesthetics and Safety: Perceptions of neighborhood features, street characteristics, and overall safety (e.g., crime, traffic volume).

Validity

The validity of the Active Where? Surveys was established through several rigorous procedures. Initial development relied on formative research, including individual interviews with children and parents ‘in situ’—allowing researchers to observe and interact with youth within their actual neighborhood and park environments to generate ecologically appropriate items. This step ensured high levels of face validity, where items were deemed relevant and understandable by both participants and experts.

Furthermore, concurrent validity was assessed by measuring behavioral outcomes known to be related to environmental factors. Participants reported their physical activity levels, fruit and vegetable consumption, and height and weight (used to calculate BMI and BMI percentiles). The research hypothesized that environmental characteristics assessed by the survey (e.g., high walkability, low barriers) would correlate significantly with positive health outcomes (e.g., higher physical activity, lower BMI), providing evidence for the instrument’s overall validity in measuring environmental correlates of health behaviors.

Reliability

A comprehensive test-retest reliability study was conducted across the three collaborating U.S. cities (San Diego, Cincinnati, and Boston) to maximize the generalizability of the findings. Participants, consisting of adolescents and their parents, completed the same survey instruments on two occasions, separated by approximately a two-week period. This procedure allowed researchers to evaluate the stability of the environmental measures over time.

The psychometric evaluation indicated that most measures performed well, demonstrating acceptable reliability for self-report environmental data. Detailed individual item reliability statistics for the adolescent, parent-adolescent, and parent-child surveys were generated. Links to these reliability reports (PDFs) are provided in the references section, allowing researchers to examine the stability of specific environmental items.

Factor Analysis

While the primary psychometric focus centered on item-level test-retest reliability and concurrent validity with behavioral outcomes, the structure of the survey implies underlying factors or domains related to the built environment. The survey is internally organized into 24 distinct sections (A through X), each addressing specific environmental or behavioral domains (e.g., access to services, neighborhood safety, barriers to walking, sedentary behavior). Subsequent research or analyses using these extensive item sets would typically employ exploratory or confirmatory factor analysis to confirm the latent structure of the perceived environmental correlates measured by the instrument. The researchers made the detailed item reliability statistics available to facilitate further psychometric investigation.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report quantitative survey measures

Format: Multi-section questionnaire (24 sections, A-X) utilizing various Likert scales (e.g., four-point scale ranging from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree; five-point scale for time/distance) and frequency counts.

Language Available: English (based on source material)

Population Group: Youth (children and adolescents) and their parents/caregivers.

Age Group: Children and adolescents, generally spanning 12 to 19 years old for the core reliability sample.

Population Details: Participants were recruited from diverse neighborhoods in San Diego, Cincinnati, and Boston, stratified by income (low/high) and walkability (low/high) to ensure environmental variability and generalizability. Recruitment methods included community centers, local events, phone recruitment, and mail recruitment, adapted slightly for each city.

Test Methodology: Surveys were administered to parent-child dyads, parent-adolescent dyads, or adolescents individually. The test-retest procedure involved participants completing the surveys on two occasions approximately two weeks apart, usually requiring 30–45 minutes per administration.

Keywords

environmental health, health behaviors, youth development, neighborhood environment, chronic disease prevention, survey development, physical activity measures, built environment

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not provided in source content.

Affiliation Email addresses: Not provided in source content.

Correspondence Address: Correspondence generally directed to James Sallis, Ph.D., or Jacqueline Kerr, Ph.D. (San Diego State University affiliation for Sallis).

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The Active Where? Study was supported by Active Living Research (ALR), a program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The key publications date from 2008–2009, suggesting the primary scale development and validation occurred around this period. The surveys are publicly available via the links provided by the primary authors.

The original PDF surveys can be downloaded here:

• Active Where? Parent/Child Survey: http://www.drjamessallis.sdsu.edu/Documents/Active%20Where_parent_child_survey.pdf
• Active Where? Parent/Adolescent Survey: http://www.drjamessallis.sdsu.edu/Documents/Active%20Where_parent_adolescent_survey.pdf
• Active Where? Adolescent Survey: http://www.drjamessallis.sdsu.edu/Documents/Active%20Where_adolescent_survey.pdf

Reference’s

• Durant, N., Kerr, J., Harris, S.K, Saelens, B.E., Norman, G.J., and Sallis, J.F. (2009). Environmental and safety barriers to youth physical activity in parks and streets: Reliability and validity. Pediatric Exercise Science, 21, 86-99.
• Forman, H., Kerr, J., Norman, G., Saelens, B., Durent, N., Harris, S., Sallis, J. (2008). Reliability and Validity of destination-specific barriers to walking and cycling for parents and adolescents. Preventive Medicine, 46 (4), 311-316.
• Grow, H.M., Saelens, B.E., Kerr, J., Durant, N.H., Norman, G.J., and Sallis, J.F. (2008). Where are youth active? Roles of proximity, active transport, and built environment. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 40, 2071-2079.
• Joe L, Carlson JA, Sallis JF. Active Where? Individual item reliability statistics parent/child survey. (Note: This is a technical report, not a journal article.)

The individual item test-retest reliability reports (PDFs) can be accessed here:

• Active Where? Item Reliability Overview: http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/faculty/sallis/Documents/AW_item_reliability_overview.pd
• Active Where? Item Reliability Adolescent Survey: http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/faculty/sallis/Documents/AW_item_reliability_Adolescent.pdf
• Active Where? Item Reliability Parent/Adolescent Survey: http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/faculty/sallis/Documents/AW_item_reliability_ParentAdo.pdf
• Active Where? Item Reliability Parent/Child Survey: http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/faculty/sallis/Documents/AW_item_reliability_ParentChild.pdf

Items of the Active Where? Surveys

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

The survey(s) included the following sections:

• Section A has 13 items assessing the number of electronic devices in the home and in the child’s
• Section B has 20 items assessing the time to walk to various commercial and public Based on a five point scale, ranging from 1-5 minutes to 30 minutes or more.
• Section C has 14 items assessing the time to walk to recreation locations. Based on a five point scale, ranging from 1-5 minutes to 30 minutes or more.
• Section D has 17 items assessing a) the frequency of activity in recreation locations and b) whether the child usually walked or biked to that location. A is based on a four point scale, ranging from Never to Once a Week or More. B is based on a two point scale, ranging from Yes to No.
• Section E and F have 18 items assessing the barriers to walking or biking to the local park and to shops and restaurants. Based on a four point scale, ranging from Strongly Disagree to Strongly
• Section G has 21 items assessing barriers to activity in parks and the local neighborhood. Based on a four point scale, ranging from Strongly Disagree to Strongly
• Section H has 4 questions assessing types of homes in the neighborhood. Based on a five

point scale, ranging from None to All.

• Section I has 6 items assessing ease of access to local services. Based on a four point scale, ranging from Strongly Disagree to Strongly
• Section J has 3 items assessing aspects of streets in the neighborhood. Based on a four point scale, ranging from Strongly Disagree to Strongly
• Section K has 3 items assessing the different places for walking. Based on a four point scale, ranging from Strongly Disagree to Strongly
• Section L has 4 items assessing the aesthetic features of the neighborhood. Based on a four point scale, ranging from Strongly Disagree to Strongly
• Section M has 13 items assessing the safety of the neighborhood. Based on a four point scale, ranging from Strongly Disagree to Strongly
• Section N has 2 items assessing the impact of bad weather on physical activity. Based on a four point scale, ranging from Strongly Disagree to Strongly
• Section O has 5 items assessing how often the child is active in the local neighborhood. Based on a four point scale ranging from Never to Once a Week or More.
• Section P has 14 items assessing how often objects promoting physical activity are used in the child’s home environment. Based on a five point scale, ranging from Not Available to Use Once a Week or
• Section Q has 9 items assessing the time the child spends in physical
• Section R has 23 items assessing the amount of time spent during sedentary behavior. Based on a seven point scale, ranging from None to 4 hours or
• Section S has 38 items assessing rules for: playing outside, TV and related behaviors, and for Based on a 3 point scale, ranging from Yes to Sometimes.
• Section T has 18 items assessing the availability of specific types of food in the adolescent’s Based on a five point scale, ranging from Never to Always.
• Section U has 23 items assessing different aspects about the physical activity environment in the adolescent’s
• Section V has 18 items assessing the barriers to walking and biking to Based on a four point scale, ranging from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree.
• Section W has 20 items assessing specific food availability at the adolescent’s school and the surrounding areas, and days per week eating specific food or at specific places. Availability was assessed by Yes, No. If yes was selected adolescent was then prompted to answer how many days a week of use, ranging from 0 to 5.
• Section X has 13 demographic