Validation and adaptation of the Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale (PACES) in fitness group exercisers

Background: Recently, Mullen et al. (2011) presented an 8-item version of the Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale (PACES) providing a valid instrument for assessing enjoyment in physical activity. The present paper investigated the psychometric properties of a Portuguese adaptation of PACES.

Methods: After a process of back-to-back translation into Portuguese, 395 members of fitness centers who ranged in age from 18 to 66 years (31.11 ± 8.90, mean ± SD) completed the translated version of the PACES. On average, participants had 3.2 years of experience in fitness group classes and practiced for approximately 3.3 times per week.

Results: An initial exploratory factor analysis (n = 139) revealed a unidimensional structure with factor loadings ranging from 0.79 to 0.89. Results also showed acceptable internal consistency. A confirmatory factor analysis in an independent sample (n = 256) provided additional support for the unidimensional structure of the questionnaire. In addition, moderate positive correlations between enjoyment and intrinsic and identified regulation, and moderate negative correlations between enjoyment and external and amotivation demonstrate the convergent validity of the instrument. Finally, measurement invariance between two independent samples was also found.

Conclusion: The 8-item Portuguese version of PACES is a valid and reliable instrument for measuring enjoyment of physical activity in Portuguese adult's fitness exercisers, therefore suitable to use as a measure of affect in exercise adherence interventions studies.