Development, Reliability and Validity Testing of a Novel To and Fro Agility Test in School-going Children: A Cross-sectional Study
Published: June 1, 2026 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.7860/JCDR/2026/87940.23594
Kanu Goyal, Subhasish Chatterjee
1. PhD Scholar, Department of Physiotherapy, MMIPR, MM(DU), Mullana, Ambala, Haryana, India.
2. Professor, Department of Physiotherapy, MMIPR, MM(DU), Mullana, Ambala, Haryana, India.
Correspondence
Dr. Subhasish Chatterjee,
Professor, Department of Physiotherapy, MMIPR, MM (DU), Mullana, Ambala-133207, Haryana, India.
E-mail: subhasishphysio@mmumullana.org
Introduction: For children to participate in sports, physical education, and everyday func-tional tasks, agility is a crucial feature of motor fitness. Even though there are many agility evalua-tion methods available, many are constrained by space needs, complicated procedures, or decreased via-bility for school-age children. Thus, a straightforward, valid, and reliable field-based agility test that is appropriate for school-age children is required.
Aim: To develop a novel To and Fro Agility Test (TFAT) and to evaluate its content validity, test-retest reliability and criterion validity in school-going children aged 10 to 16 years.
Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional methodological study was conducted at MM Interna-tional School Mullana, Ambala, Haryana, India between June 2025 to November 2025. The study consisted of 51 participants of which 25 were boys and 26 girls. Study followed COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments (COSMIN) criteria. Six experts evaluated the content validi-ty of the newly developed novel TFAT using a four-point Likert scale, and the Item Content Validity In-dex (I-CVI) was then calculated. By comparing TFAT performance with the 5-0-5 agility test, criterion validity was analysed. Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC), Cronbach alpha, Standard Error mean (SEM), coefficient of variation, Smallest Worthwhile Change (SWC), Minimal Detectable Change (MDC), Bland-Altman analysis, regression analysis, Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve, sensitivity, specificity, and Area Under the Curve (AUC) were all included in the statistical analysis.
Results: The mean age of the participants was 13.1±1.8 years. The TFAT demonstrated high test-retest reliability with an ICC of 0.99 (95% CI:0.98-0.99) and Cronbach alpha of 0.99, as well as excel-lent content validity (I-CVI=1). Absolute reliability showed low SEM (0.25 sec) indicating good measure-ment precision, however the CV (28.7%) indicates relatively high variability; thus, absolute reliability should be interpreted cautiously despite excellent ICC. Validity criteria analysis demonstrated good discriminative capacity having an AUC of 0.74, high sensitivity (0.91), and moderate specificity (0.47). Bland-Altman analysis found little bias (0.082 s) with limited limits of agreement as well as no system-atic error criteria. The high ICC indicates that TFAT provides consistent and reproducible agility meas-urements in school-going children supporting its use for monitoring performance changes.
Conclusion: The novel TFAT is a reliable, valid and practical tool for assessing agility in school-going children. Its simplicity, minimal equipment requirements and strong psychometric properties support its use in school based physical education and youth sports settings.
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