COVID-19 is reshaping human interactions with the natural environment, potentially generating profound consequences for health and well-being. To assess the effects of COVID-19 on the outdoor recreation participation and subjective well-being of adolescents, as well as how participation in outdoor activities may mitigate declines in subjective well-being, we used a Qualtrics XM panel to conduct a nationally representative survey of youth ages 10-18 across the United States (n = 624) between 30 April and 15 June 2020. Survey questions focused on frequency of participation in outdoor activities before and during the pandemic, as well as changes in subjective well-being. Paired t-tests revealed decreases in both outdoor recreation participation (64% reported declines) and subjective well-being (52% reported declines). A regression model examining correlates of changes in subjective well-being (R2 = 0.42) revealed strong associations with changes in outdoor play (B = 0.44, p < 0.001) and nature-based (B = 0.21, p = 0.016) activities. Adolescents' from all backgrounds who participated in these activities during the pandemic reported smaller declines in subjective well-being. Results highlight the critical role that time outdoors and time in nature play in bolstering adolescents' resilience to stressors such as the COVID-19 pandemic and underscore the need to facilitate outdoor recreation opportunities for youth during times of crisis.

https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/5/2506/pdf

Outdoor Activity Participation Improves Adolescents' Mental Health and Well-Being during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The importance of optimal well-being and mental health in elite athletes has received increasing attention and debate in both the academic and public discourse. Despite the number of challenges and risk factors for mental health and well-being recognised within the performance lifestyle of elite athletes, the evidence base for intervention is limited by a number of methodological and conceptual issues. Notably, there exists an increasing emphasis on the development of appropriate sport-specific measures of athlete well-being, which are required to underpin strategies targeted at the protection and enhancement of psychosocial functioning. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to review psychometric issues in well-being research and discuss the implications for the measurement of well-being in sport psychology research. Drawing on the broader literature in related disciplines of psychology, the narrative discusses four key areas in the scale development process: conceptual and theoretical issues, item development issues, measurement and scoring issues, and analytical and statistical issues. To conclude, a summary of the key implications for sport psychology researchers seeking to develop a measure of well-being is presented.

/pdf/measuring-well-being-in-sport-performers-where-are-we-now-1mv6tsnxt8.pdf

Measuring Well-Being in Sport Performers: Where are We Now and How do we Progress?

Measurement instruments are used to collect data about respondents. In social pharmacy, measurement instruments are often used to measure latent constructs, such as attitudes, among healthcare professionals and patients. This paper aims to describe the fundamental aspects of designing and validating instruments, which aim to measure latent constructs. The main focus of this manuscript is to describe the considerations and processes relating to exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, when used to develop measures of latent psychosocial constructs. However, it also presents a detailed summary of the current evidence and suggestions for item generation and sample selection, as well as, an in-depth description of approaches to content and face validation. Suggestions for further reading are also provided.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ijpp.12600

How to measure a latent construct: Psychometric principles for the development and validation of measurement instruments

Counselling help-seeking behaviour among male students in a higher learning ecology

The world beyond rating scales : Why we should think more carefully about the response format in questionnaires

Quite a lot of research is available on the relationships between survey response scales’ characteristics and the quality of responses. However, it is often difficult to extract practical rules for questionnaire design from the wide and often mixed amount of empirical evidence. The aim of this study is to provide first a classification of the characteristics of response scales, mentioned in the literature, that should be considered when developing a scale, and second a summary of the main conclusions extracted from the literature regarding the impact these characteristics have on data quality. Thus, this paper provides an updated and detailed classification of the design decisions that matter in questionnaire development, and a summary of what is said in the literature about their impact on data quality. It distinguishes between characteristics that have been demonstrated to have an impact, characteristics for which the impact has not been found, and characteristics for which research is still needed to make a conclusion.

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A classification of response scale characteristics that affect data quality: a literature review

Little is known about the reliability and validity in web surveys, although this is crucial information to evaluate how accurate the results might be and/or to correct for measurement errors. In pa...

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0894439317750089

Anna DeCastellarnau

Papers

A classification of response scale characteristics that affect data quality: a literature review

Measurement Reliability, Validity, and Quality of Slider Versus Radio Button Scales in an Online Probability-Based Panel in Norway: