Psychometric Properties of the Healthy Lifestyles Perceived Difficulty Scale for Teens

Background: Obesity is a complex condition, which affects the social, psychological, and physical health of adolescents. The adverse health consequences of obesity affect the functioning of every body system and have been shown to impact the teenager’s psychosocial well-being. Interventions that focus on improving the healthy lifestyle behaviors of increased physical activity, improved dietary patterns, and the thinking/behavior connection have been shown to be beneficial. The ability of teenagers to adopt a healthy lifestyle is affected by how difficult they perceive habit change; therefore, this is an important construct for measurement.

Purpose: The purpose of this instrumentation study was to assess the psychometric properties of the Healthy Lifestyle Perceived Difficulty Scale for Teens.Methods: The Perceived Difficulty Scale for Teens is a 12-item instrument that taps how hard or easy the teenager perceives healthy lifestyle behavior changes. Examples of items on the scale include: “Eat healthy” and “Exercise instead of watching TV, relaxing, or using the computer”. The items are scored on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from “Very hard to do” to “Very easy to do”. Initial testing of the instrument included face validity that was established with 10 teens. Eight adolescent specialists established content validity. The Perceived Difficulty Scale was administered during a Health/PE course to 401 adolescents at two high schools located in the Southwest region of the United States. Findings: The mean age of respondents was 15.1 years with approximately 48% male. Internal consistency reliability was determined on 10 items of the scale with a Cronbach’s alpha of .883. Construct validity was supported with principal components loading on two factors: Exercise and Food. Implications: Exploring the difficulty that adolescents perceive in leading a healthy lifestyle is an important consideration when developing intervention programs for obesity and working with them in the clinical setting. The Perceived Difficulty Scale allows assessment of this construct and can inform clinicians regarding how difficult adolescents view healthy lifestyles change.