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.

Bhanu Sharma, Jackie Robinson, Benjamin B. Arhen, Brian W. Timmons, Bryan Heald, Marika Warner