Construct validity of the Nutrition and Activity Knowledge Scale in a French sample of adolescents with mild to moderate intellectual disability.
The French 15-item Nutrition and Activity Knowledge Scale is a solid ruler for measuring what teens with mild to moderate ID know about food and exercise.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Maïano et al. (2010) tested a French 15-item quiz about food and exercise. They wanted to see if teens with mild to moderate intellectual disability could answer it the same way each time. The team checked boys and girls, younger and older teens, and different IQ levels.
They used regular math to see if the questions hang together and if scores stay steady.
What they found
The quiz held up. It gave steady scores across gender, age, and ID level. That means you can trust it to show what a teen with ID really knows about healthy food and moving their body.
The tool is ready for French-speaking clinicians and teachers.
How this fits with other research
McGeown et al. (2013) did the same kind of check on a Dutch mood screen for adults with ID. Both papers show that translated tools can keep their muscle when used with people who have intellectual disability.
Kocher et al. (2015) also followed the same recipe. They proved an Italian daily-living scale works in adults with ID. The pattern is clear: step-by-step psychometric work keeps foreign-language tests safe to use.
Dachez et al. (2015) even used the same French language. They validated an attitude scale, not a knowledge quiz. Together these studies build a small French toolbox clinicians can trust.
Why it matters
If you serve French-speaking teens with ID, you now have a quick 15-item scale that actually measures nutrition and activity knowledge. Give it before and after health lessons to see if your teaching sticks. No need to guess—let the numbers tell you if the teen learned.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The purpose of this study was to test the reliability (i.e. internal consistency and test-retest reliability) and construct validity (i.e. content validity, factor validity, measurement invariance, and latent mean invariance) of the Nutrition and Activity Knowledge Scale (NAKS) in a sample of French adolescents with mild to moderate Intellectual Disability (ID). A total sample of 260 adolescents (144 boys and 116 girls), aged between 12 and 18 years old, with mild to moderate ID was involved in two studies. In the first study, analysis of items' content reveals that many words from the original version were not understood or induced confusion. These items were reworded and simplified while retaining their original meaning. In the second study, results provided support for: (i) the factor validity and reliability of a 15-item French version of the NAKS; (ii) the measurement invariance of the resulting NAKS across genders and ID levels; (iii) the partial measurement invariance of the resulting NAKS across age groups and type of school placement. In addition, the latent means of the 15-item French version of the NAKS proved to be invariant across gender, age categories, and ID levels, but to vary across type of school placement (with adolescents schooled in self-contained classes from regular schools presenting higher levels of NAK than adolescents placed in specialized establishments). The present results thus provide preliminary evidence regarding the construct validity of a 15-item French version of the NAKS in a sample of adolescents with ID.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2010 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2009.09.012