Start Date: July 2017

ID #: 74396

Principal Investigator: Marlene Schwartz, PhD

Organization: University of Connecticut

Funding Round: Round 10

See more related research

Share


The WellSAT, created in 2005, is a leading measure used to assess the quality of written school wellness policies. The aim of the present study is to update the WellSAT to a 3.0 version based on current science and psychometric assessments to reflect the 2016 final federal rule from the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. The final product will be an assessment measure with high internal reliability and inter-rater reliability. This project will occur in three phases. Phase I will consist of reviewing USDA regulations and academic reports on school wellness and creating a list of topics to add and remove in WellSAT 3.0. In Phase II, the research team will analyze WellSAT 2.0 scores and gather feedback and recommendations for improvement from a sample of WellSAT 2.0 users, and create the WellSAT 3.0 with feedback from stakeholders and other researchers, practitioners, and advocates. In Phase Ill, the research team will double code a sample of 50 policies from a national database and test inter-rater and internal reliability of the revised tool.

Related Research

July 2020

Wellness School Assessment Tool Version 3.0: An Updated Quantitative Measure of Written School Wellness Policies

Schools play an important role in promoting student wellness. As directed by the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act, the US Department of Agriculture updated the requirements for written school wellness policies in 2016. The WellSAT (Wellness School Assessment Tool) is an online tool that provides a quantitative score for wellness policy comprehensiveness and strength. The WellSAT More

September 2025

Food Insecurity-Related Stigma Among Adults in the United States: A Scoping Review

This review aimed to characterize individual- and structural-level stigma associated with government (ie, SNAP, WIC) and emergency food program (ie, food banks, pantries, cupboards, soup kitchens) utilization in the US. 5 databases (PubMed, PsychINFO, Web of Science, CINAHL, Sociological Abstracts) were searched in June 2024. The review included peer-reviewed articles (January 2004 – June 2024), More

August 2025

Lived Experiences of Families Navigating Safety Net Expansions and Retractions During the Pandemic: A Qualitative Study

This study aimed to understand the experiences of families with low income in California with pandemic safety net support expansions and retractions, including barriers to program access. Using open-ended questions, we explored the self-reported experiences of pandemic-era safety net expansions and expirations between January and June 2023 among a group of caregivers of young children More