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

January 2025

A Systematic Review: The Impact of COVID-19 Policy Flexibilities on SNAP and WIC Programmatic Outcomes

The objective of this study was to explore the impact of policy flexibilities deployed during the COVID-19 public health emergency on access, enrollment/retention, benefit utilization, and perceptions of SNAP and WIC. The review identified 37 eligible articles. Twelve studies evaluated policy flexibilities in SNAP only, 21 in WIC only, and 4 in both programs. Across More

December 2024

Opportunities to Improve Summer EBT: Perspectives from state SNAP agencies

Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT), or SUN Bucks, is a new federal program that provides grocery benefits to low-income families with children during the summer months, when children no longer have access to free or reduced-price meals at school. However, 13 states did not opt into the program when it launched in 2024. To understand More