Initial development and assessment of the Motives for Managing Sedentary Behaviour - Older Adults (MMSB-OA) instrument

Abstract

Older adults have been recognized as the most sedentary age group globally. Although a growing body of literature has emerged surrounding older adults' motives to limit sedentary behaviour, there has been little done to develop practical tools to evaluate these motives. This is problematic as an instrument designed to evaluate motives could provide valuable insight for program developers to better tailor intervention designs which can effectively mitigate the detrimental consequences associated with prolonged sedentary behaviour. Two studies are presented within this thesis, both of which sought to evaluate the psychometric properties of an instrument designed to assess older adults’ motives to sit less from the theoretical perspective of Self-Determination Theory. Results demonstrated satisfactory validity and reliability for the instrument; however further exploration is required to investigate larger and more representable samples as well as the utility of the instrument in an intervention context.