Reliability and Validity of the Youth and Young-Adult Participation and Environment Measure (Y-PEM): An Initial Evaluation

Abstract

Aim

To examine psychometric properties and aspects of utility of the Youth and young-adult Participation and Environment Measure (Y-PEM).

Methods

Young people with and without physical disabilities (n = 113) aged 12 to 31 (x¯ = 23; SD = 4.3) completed an online survey containing the Y-PEM and QQ-10 questionnaire. To examine construct validity, differences in participation levels and environmental barriers/facilitators were examined between those with (n = 56) and without disabilities (n = 57) via t-test. Internal consistency was computed using Cronbach’s alpha. To examine test-retest reliability, a sub-sample of 70 participants completed the Y-PEM a second time, 2–4 weeks apart. The Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was calculated.

Results

Descriptively, participants with disabilities had lower levels of frequency and involvement across all four settings: home, school/educational, community, workplace. Internal consistency were 0.71 and above (up to 0.82) across all scales with the exception of home (0.52) and workplace frequency (0.61). Test-retest reliability were 0.70 and above (up to 0.85) across all settings except for environmental supports at school (0.66) and workplace frequency (0.43). Y-PEM was perceived as a valuable tool with relatively low burden.

Conclusions

Initial psychometric properties are promising. Findings support Y-PEM’s use as a feasible self-reported questionnaire for individuals aged 12–30 years old.

Keywords:

• Assessment
• environment
• participation measure
• transition-aged
• workplace participation

Acknowledgements

We thank all participants for their contribution to this project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Saeideh Shahin

Saeideh Shahin, MSc OT, is a doctoral candidate at the School of Physical and Occupational Therapy at McGill University. Her research focuses on developing a measure to comprehensively capture the participation of youth and young adults in age-appropriate and meaningful activities with a special attention to the environmental factors that impact participation.

Sara Ahmed

Sara Ahmed, PhD, is an Associate Professor at the School of Physical and Occupational Therapy at McGill University, and researcher at CRIR. Her research focuses on improving health outcomes for individuals with chronic disease.

Briano DiRezze

Briano DiRezze, PhD, is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Health Sciences at McMaster University and Co-director of CanChild. His research focuses on measurement development and examining the impact of interventions on participation in everyday life among youth with autism.

Dana Anaby

Dana Anaby, PhD, is an Associate Professor at the School of Physical and Occupational Therapy at McGill University, a researcher at CRIR, and a Scientist with CanChild. Her research focuses on developing measures to evaluate, and interventions to improve the participation of youth with physical disabilities.