Validity and reliability evidence of the attitudes towards physical activity of Greek prisoners

The purpose of the present study was to develop a valid and reliable instrument to assess the attitudes of Greek prisoners regarding physical activity and sports. A total of 308 male adult Greek prison inmates participated voluntarily, from three Greek prisons. Exploratory factor analysis revealed 3 factors consisting of 11 physical activity and sport items that explained 51.75% of the total variability. These factors were named: a) need for physical activity (7 items), b) physical activity before and during imprisonment (2 items), and c) non - participation in physical activity (2 items). The internal consistency for the whole scale was .70, while reliability indexes ranged from .88 to .58 for the three factors. Results showed that Greek prisoners identified the neediness for physical activities and sport during imprisonment and rated high the respective items. Overall findings showed that the new questionnaire, named Attitudes Towards Physical Activity of Greek Prisoners (ATPA - GP) may be perceived as a reliable and valid instrument to identify the attitudes of Greek prison inmates towards physical activity and sports. Further research is required to confirm the present findings, with a wider sample, using confirmatory factor analysis, examining the differences across gender, age, marital status, type of prison, sentence, etc.