A Novel Tool for the Assessment of Sport Climbers' Movement Performance

PURPOSE

To assess the validity and reliability of a novel movement-performance assessment tool for climbing/sport climbing.

METHODS

First, salient climbing movement-performance factors were identified through an iterative consultation process with 10 expert climbing coaches; the resulting Climber's Movement Performance Assessment Tool (CM-PAT) contained 14 items in 5 categories. Second, 61 intermediate to advanced climbers ascended a single route, which was video recorded. Subsequently, 4 experienced (>10 y coaching) coaches used the CM-PAT to observe and score the climbers' performance. Interrater reliability and comparisons with existing measures of climbing performance (6-mo self-reported ability, success and failure, climbing pace [m·min-1], and geometric entropy) were made.

RESULTS

Intraclass correlation coefficient (2,k) for the 4 raters demonstrated excellent reliability (>.81) between observers and good to excellent test-retest reliability (.71-.91). Pearson correlations between self-reported ability and CM-PAT scores explained 61% of the variance in self-reported climbing performance compared with 16% for geometric entropy and 52% for climbing pace. Considering differences in successful and unsuccessful climbers, the CM-PAT (P < .0005; d = 2.14), geometric entropy (P = .014; d = 0.67), and pace (P < .0005; d = 1.88) were able to differentiate between groups.

CONCLUSIONS

The CM-PAT is the first sport climbing performance observational instrument to be developed through a thorough iterative process with expert coaches. Excellent interrater and test-retest reliability and excellent agreement with self-reported ability and with existing quantitative measures of performance support its recommendation for use in coaching and research contexts. Notably, a key advantage over existing measures is the identification of coachable elements of performance.

Design and Validation of a Scale Measuring Attitudes toward Refugee Children

The aim of this study was to design, develop, and validate a questionnaire evaluating attitudes toward refugee children. Method: The questionnaire was analyzed using SPSS Software version 21.0 (IBM Corp., 2012, Armonk, NY, USA). Results: Cronbach’s α was greater than 0.9. According to an expert’s review, the instrument provided arithmetic means higher than 2.5, the dimensions evaluated had interclass correlation coefficients greater than 55, and the corrected correlation values of the item-total were greater than 0.35. Conclusions: The Attitude Questionnaire toward Refugee Children was found to be an adequate instrument for better understanding and measuring the attitudes of host countries’ citizens toward refugee children.