Evaluating sport-for-development outcome measures used in a living lab setting: Process, improvements, and insights

Background: Sport-for-development (SFD) uses sport to promote physical, mental, and social outcomes for children and youth, particularly those from underserved communities. Living labs offer ecologically valid, participant-centered research environments but pose challenges for standardized outcome measurement. Few measures are tailored for SFD in living lab contexts, making valid assessment difficult. Objective: To evaluate a set of outcome measures administered in a living lab to understand their performance, reliability, and areas for improvement. Methods: At an urban SFD facility in Toronto, Canada, 11 self-reported Likert-style outcome measures were evaluated using eight Classical Test Theory (CTT) metrics (e.g., floor/ceiling effects, inter-item correlations, internal consistency, test–retest reliability). Data were collected from 2019–2024 across multiple cohorts (ages 6–29) and programs. Results: Across 2656 questionnaire completions, data collection showed strengths, including complete response rates and minimal missing data (91% of outcome measures met missingness thresholds). Challenges were primarily single-item endorsement and inter-item correlations (38% and 19% of outcome measures met these thresholds, respectively). Iterative improvements included expanding Likert response options (e.g., 4-point to 6-point scales) to reduce binning and improve data spread. Conclusions: Evaluation identified ways to improve outcome measures for living lab administration, underscoring the need for context-appropriate, validated tools to capture nuanced SFD impacts and the importance of ongoing validation for both research quality and practical implementation.