Children’s enjoyment of play during school lunch breaks: An examination of intra- and inter-day reliability

Background: Enjoyment and play during school lunchtime are correlated with children’s physical activity. Despite this, there is an absence of studies reporting children’s enjoyment of play during school lunchtime breaks. The purpose of this study was to examine the intraday and interday reliability of children’s enjoyment of school lunchtime play. Methods: Surveys used to assess children’s enjoyment of lunchtime play were distributed to and completed by 197 children (112 males, 85 females), aged 8–12 years attending an elementary school in Victoria, Australia. Children completed the surveys during class before lunch (expected enjoyment) and after lunch (actual enjoyment) for 5 days. The intra- and interday enjoyment of school lunchtime play reliability were determined using a weighted kappa. Results:Intraday kappa values ranged from fair (0.31) to substantial (0.75) within each of the 5 days (median kappa = 0.41). In comparison, “expected” (0.09–0.40; median 0.30) and “actual” (0.05–0.46; median 0.28) interday enjoyment of lunchtime play displayed low reliability. Conclusions:Children’s enjoyment of lunchtime play appears to be more consistent within days than across days. The findings suggest that assessment of children’s enjoyment of lunchtime play once on a single day would be representative of a particular day but not necessarily that particular school week.

背景：校园午餐时段的玩乐体验与儿童身体活动水平存在相关性。然而，目前尚无研究探讨儿童在校园午餐休息时段的玩乐体验。本研究旨在探究儿童校园午餐时段玩乐体验的日内信度（intraday reliability）与日间信度（interday reliability）。
方法：本研究向澳大利亚维多利亚州某小学的197名8~12岁儿童（其中男生112名，女生85名）发放并回收了用于评估午餐时段玩乐体验的调查问卷。受试儿童分别在午餐前（预期玩乐体验）与午餐后（实际玩乐体验）的课堂时段完成问卷，连续开展5天。本研究采用加权Kappa（weighted kappa）系数计算儿童校园午餐时段玩乐体验的日内信度与日间信度。
结果：5天的日内Kappa值范围为中等（0.31）至高度一致（0.75），中位Kappa值为0.41。相较而言，午餐时段玩乐的预期体验（Kappa值范围0.09~0.40，中位值0.30）与实际体验（Kappa值范围0.05~0.46，中位值0.28）的日间信度均处于较低水平。
结论：儿童在午餐时段的玩乐体验在单日内部的一致性优于跨日一致性。本研究结果表明，仅通过单日单次评估即可反映该日儿童的午餐玩乐体验，但无法代表整周校园时段的玩乐体验。