Numerous methods are available to assess physical activity (PA) but systematic observation (SO) excels in being able to provide contextually rich data on the setting in which the activity occurs. As SO is particularly useful for determining how activity is influenced by the immediate physical and social environments, its use is becoming more…

According to cross-sectional studies in sport science literature, decreasing sports activity with increasing age is generally assumed. In this paper, the validity of this assumption is checked by applying more effective methods of analysis, such as longitudinal and cohort sequence analyses. With the help of 20 years' worth of data records from the…

The purpose of this review is to integrate and summarize specific measurement topics (instrument and metric choice, validity, reliability, how many and what types of days, reactivity, and data treatment) appropriate to the study of youth physical activity. Research quality pedometers are necessary to aid interpretation of steps per day collected…

An analysis was conducted to identify sources of true and error variance in measuring swimming drag force to draw valid conclusions about performance factor effects. Passive drag studies were grouped according to methodological differences: tow line in pool, tow line in flume, and carriage in tow tank. Active drag studies were grouped according to…

This study examined the sport participation patterns of 12 African American female collegiate student athletes using qualitative methods. Data were collected at a large midwestern university during the 1998-99 academic year. An emergent theme was the effect of silencing by the media, athletic administrators, coaches, and other student athletes on…

The accounts of our subdiscipline's contributions to The Research Quarterly are similar. Sociology, history, and philosophy operate at some distance from the biological sciences. The research methods used by scholars in each of our domains address distinctive issues related to objectivity and, thus, validity. The authors contributions to The…

The study followed a four-phase design. In Phase I an exhaustive search was conducted for all English language coaching research published in journals from 1970 to 2001. In Phase II, copies of the research were obtained. An expert panel conducted a manual search and a review in Phase III to address validity. Analysis of the research was completed…