Development, Reliability and Validity Testing of a Novel To and Fro Agility Test in School-going Children: A Cross-sectional Study

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.

Abstract

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.

Agility, Physical education, Physical fitness, Psychometric, Test-retest reliability