Instruments to measure physical activity and chronotype in young people: a narrative review
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59614/acief62026300Keywords:
Physical activity, adolescents, sedentary behavior, chronotype, measurement instrumentsAbstract
Physical activity and chronotype are complementary dimensions for understanding movement, sleep, and health patterns in youth. This narrative review aimed to characterize and critically assess the instruments available to measure both variables in young people, considering psychometric properties, target populations, limitations, and recommendations for use. A literature search was conducted in PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, SciELO, and open-access repositories for studies published between 2016 and 2026. The review included validation studies, reviews, and empirical papers reporting measurement properties of instruments of physical activity, chronotype, or both among adolescents and young adults. Studies focused solely on older adults, specific clinical populations, or papers without instrument-related information were excluded. The synthesis was qualitative and categorical. About 20 documents were examined in detail. In the reviewed corpus, self-report questionnaires remain practical, although their correspondence with accelerometry is often moderate. For chronotype, the Morningness-Eveningness Scale for Children (MESC), the Composite Scale of Morningness (CSM), the reduced Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents (rMEQ-CA), the Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ), and the Munich Chronotype Questionnaire (MCTQ) show favorable psychometric evidence, but their classifications are not interchangeable. Studies combining both variables describe, with nuances, higher activity and lower sedentary behavior among morning-oriented youth. The available evidence supports multimethod approaches; however, this narrative review cannot establish a definitive hierarchy among instruments, because it did not apply a systematic appraisal of methodological quality.
References
Bajamal, E., & Robbins, L. B. (2023). Psychometric properties of the Arabic version of Physical Activity Questionnaire for Adolescents (PAQ-A). Applied Nursing Research, 69, 151660. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apnr.2022.151660
Brust, C., Meneghetti, A., Pelegrini, A., Beltrame, T. S., Barbosa, D. G., Andrade, R. D., & Felden, É. P. G. (2025). Factor structure of the Brazilian version of the Morningness-Eveningness Scale for Children (MESC) for chronotype assessment in adolescents. Chronobiology International, 42(3), 319–327. https://doi.org/10.1080/07420528.2025.2462155
Cheung, F. T. W., Ho, A. W. Y., Chan, J. W. Y., Li, X., Chan, N. Y., Zhang, J., Ho, C. S., Wing, Y. K., & Li, S. X. (2022). Validation of the Chinese version of the Munich Chronotype Questionnaire (MCTQ^HK) in Hong Kong Chinese youths. Chronobiology International, 39(5), 678–689. https://doi.org/10.1080/07420528.2022.2025821
Cooper, R., Di Biase, M. A., Bei, B., Allen, N. B., Schwartz, O., Whittle, S., & Cropley, V. (2023). Development of morning–eveningness in adolescence: Implications for brain development and psychopathology. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 64(3), 449–460. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.13707
Fillon, A., Pereira, B., Vanhelst, J., Baran, J., Masurier, J., Guirado, T., Boirie, Y., Duclos, M., Julian, V., & Thivel, D. (2022). Development of the Children and Adolescents Physical Activity and Sedentary Questionnaire (CAPAS-Q): Psychometric validity and clinical interpretation. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(21), 13782. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192113782
Haji Abadi, M. R., Kwaghbo, N., Onyeso, O. K., Sadia, F., Benavides Castro, J. K., Santos Silva, D. A., Yan, Y., Shen, Y., Hamrik, Z., Sarmiento, O. L., Liu, Y., Tremblay, M. S., & Larouche, R. (2025). Psychometric properties of physical activity questionnaires for children and adolescents: An updated systematic review. Sports Medicine, 55(9), 2225–2301. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-025-02270-x
Hidding, L. M., Chinapaw, M. J. M., van Poppel, M. N. M., Mokkink, L. B., & Altenburg, T. M. (2018). An updated systematic review of childhood physical activity questionnaires. Sports Medicine, 48(12), 2797–2842. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-018-0987-0
Holt, E., Tari, B., Ojo, D., Alavi, Z., Watson, E., Keating Bartlett, S., & Ronca, F. (2026). Associations between chronotype, physical activity and cognition in a free-living setting. Experimental Brain Research, 244, 53. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-026-07254-5
Huang, W. Y., Feng, J., Zheng, C., Jiao, J., & Wong, S. H. S. (2024). Associations of social jetlag with physical activity and sedentary behaviour in children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Sleep Research, 33(1), e13997. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.13997
Krommidas, C., Sarrazin, P., Carraro, A., Duda, J. L., Demirhan, G., Torregrossa, M., Martins, J., Gobbi, E., Escriva-Boulley, G., Loules, G., Ramis, Y., Erturan, G., Bouglas, V., Appleton, P., Tessier, D., Mata, C. A., Syrmpas, Y., Digelidis, N., & Papaioannou, A. G. (2026). A composite short self-report of adolescents’ out-of-school physical activity: Enhanced validity, reliability, cross-cultural applicability and identification of psychological correlates. International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/1612197X.2025.2611834
Liu, D., He, J., & Li, H. (2024). The relationship between adolescents’ physical activity, circadian rhythms, and sleep. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 15, 1415985. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1415985
Manjón-Caballero, J. L., & Díaz-Morales, J. F. (2025). Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire: Reliability and factorial structure of the full and reduced versions in Spanish adolescents. Chronobiology International, 42(6), 808–816. https://doi.org/10.1080/07420528.2025.2509634
Martins, R. C., Brito, F. dos S. B., & Curioni, C. C. (2025). Influence of study shift on the interrelationships among chronobiological factors, health practices, and anthropometry in adolescents. PLOS ONE, 20(5), e0322617. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0322617
McElroy, T., Dickinson, D. L., & Vale, S. (2026). Chronotype and physical activity: An objective one-week assessment of young adults in a controlled home setting. Chronobiology International, 43(1), 30–43. https://doi.org/10.1080/07420528.2025.2579143
Paciello, L. M., Quante, M., Weidenauer, C., Rueschman, M., Nieratschker, V., Poets, C. F., & Randler, C. (2022). Validity of chronotype questionnaires in adolescents: Correlations with actigraphy. Journal of Sleep Research, 31(5), e13576. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.13576
Plekhanova, T., Crawley, E., Davies, M. J., Gorely, T., Harrington, D. M., Ioannidou, E., Khunti, K., Rowlands, A. V., Sherar, L. B., Yates, T., & Edwardson, C. L. (2023). Association between chronotype and physical behaviours in adolescent girls. Children, 10(5), 819. https://doi.org/10.3390/children10050819
Puig-Navarro, Y., & Díaz-Morales, J. F. (2025). Validation of the Morningness-Eveningness Scale for Children (MESC) with ambulatory circadian monitoring of temperature, light exposure and activity. Journal of Sleep Research, 34(4), e14444. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.14444
Qin, L., Ho, W. K. Y., & Khoo, S. (2024). The Chinese version of the physical activity questionnaire for adolescents: A psychometric validity, reliability, and invariance study. BMC Public Health, 24, 3117. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-20563-0
Randler, C., Faßl, C., & Kalb, N. (2017). From lark to owl: Developmental changes in morningness-eveningness from new-borns to early adulthood. Scientific Reports, 7, Article 45874. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep45874
Rohman, A., Dewi, N. S., & Erawati, M. (2024). The impact of chronotype on adolescent health and behavior: A scoping review. Dunia Keperawatan: Jurnal Keperawatan dan Kesehatan, 12(2), 219–234. https://doi.org/10.20527/jdk.v12i2.500
World Health Organization. (2020). WHO guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behaviour. World Health Organization.
Wyszyńska, J., Matłosz, P., Podgórska-Bednarz, J., Herbert, J., Przednowek, K., Baran, J., Dereń, K., & Mazur, A. (2019). Adaptation and validation of the Physical Activity Questionnaire for Adolescents (PAQ-A) among Polish adolescents: Cross-sectional study. BMJ Open, 9(11), e030567. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-030567
Yang, Y., Li, S.-X., Zhang, Y., Wang, F., Jiang, D.-J., Wang, S.-J., Cao, P., & Gong, Q.-H. (2023). Chronotype is associated with eating behaviors, physical activity and overweight in school-aged children. Nutrition Journal, 22, 50. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12937-023-00875-4
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Edinson Vanegas Torres
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
International Academic Journal of Physical Education, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source is credited.
