Start Date: July 2017

ID #: 74396

Principal Investigator: Marlene Schwartz, PhD

Organization: University of Connecticut

Funding Round: Round 10

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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.

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