Reliability and validity testing of the Canadian agility and movement skill assessment test and establishment of the shanghai norm.

BACKGROUND: Childhood is crucial for students' FMS development, and the growth of these skills is also highly important for their adulthood development. Offering an effective, dependable assessment tool can not only accurately measure students' FMS development but also offer specific guidance to help them enhance their skills. METHODS: CAMSA was conducted with a sample of 1,183 students from five districts in Shanghai, with an average age of 9.98 ± 1.42 years. This study adopted specific methods and procedures for assessing the reliability and validity of measurement tools. Two indicators were selected for reliability: test-retest reliability and rater reliability. For validity, three indicators were chosen: structural validity, content validity, and concurrent validity-in addition to the subsequent construction of age-specific percentile norms for Shanghai children via standardized Z-score transformation. RESULTS: The revised CAMSA demonstrated a reliability coefficient between 0.704 and 0.874, with the time score at 0.777, skill score at 0.814, and total score at 0.850. Rater reliability ranged from 0.678 to 0.922. The difficulty scores ranged from 0.52 to 0.71, with skill score difficulty between 0.64 and 0.77, and time score difficulty from 0.39 to 0.64. The skill and time scores were 0.71 and 0.52, respectively, indicating appropriate difficulty levels. The differentiation values for the total CAMSA score, skill score, and time score were 0.35, 0.34, and 0.52, respectively, suggesting effective differentiation. The scale also demonstrated acceptable structural validity, with fit indices meeting the pre-specified thresholds (χ2/df = 3.849, CFI = 0.931, GFI = 0.988, AGFI = 0.975, NFI = 0.911, RMR = 0.012, RMSEA = 0.050). Furthermore, the mean CAMSA score was 17.82 with a standard deviation of ± 3.80, while the average TGMD-3 score was 56.57 with a standard deviation of ± 22.97. The correlation coefficient between the TGMD-3 and CAMSA scores was 0.613(P = 0.000), the corresponding coefficient of determination R2 was reported as 0.376. CONCLUSION: The CAMSA is a reliable and valid assessment tool for evaluating fundamental movement skills in children aged 8-12 years. The study established norms from grades 1 to 5 and percentile norms that can be used to assess the development of children's fundamental movement skills.