Physical literacy (PL) is defined by the Bulletin of the International Council of Sport Science and Physical Education of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as the motivation, confidence, physical competence, knowledge and understanding to value and participate in a physically active lifestyle (1).

According to Whitehead (2), the term “knowledge” encompasses the knowledge and understanding component of PL, including movement (how to move), performance (evaluating movement) and health and fitness (assessing exercise, its benefits, relaxation techniques, etc.). Furthermore, in Cutter's recent study (3), experts determined that content knowledge, creativity, decision-making, and safety and risk, among other factors, were considered part of the list of cognitive elements crucial for assessing the cognitive domain.

Currently, there are different recognized assessments of PL (4–8), but the most widely used assessment worldwide is the Canadian Assessment of Physical Literacy (CAPL-2) (6), which has been validated and applied in numerous countries (9–12). Within the CAPL, there are standardized protocols to assess each of the components: motivation and confidence (13, 14), physical competence (15–17), engagement in daily physical activity (18) and knowledge and understanding of physical activity (19).

The CAPL-2 has been applied to assess PL in Spanish children and adolescents (20–22). However, the main problem derived from the application of this tool to assess PL in our population context was mainly sociocultural (23) and educational-curricular differences with respect to the Canadian population. The cognitive domain was the most penalized with respect to these differences, in which no significant results were found in the PL studies carried out in Spain (21, 22, 24). Therefore, even though knowledge of the contents encompassing PA is part of the national physical education (PE) curriculum in Spain, no standardized measure has been identified to assess the knowledge and understanding of PL. In this context, creating a questionnaire adapted to the context and needs of our population has become a priority line of research for assessing PL in our country.

Edwards et al. (25) stated that PE is considered to be the most popular context in which to associate PL. Although PE should be abstracted from the environment in which it occurs (26, 27), the authors pointed out that it is appropriate to apply this concept in schools. In this way, the whole field of education, especially PE, would be enriched, and the evaluation and monitoring of PL would be more accessible to the younger population. Therefore, to create this synergy between PL and PE, it is necessary to have a knowledge questionnaire that focuses on assessing the contents of the national PE curriculum that are related to the concept of PL.

Owing to the importance of acquiring PL at the earliest ages and the lack of available instruments for the assessment of the cognitive domain, this study aims to develop and validate a standardized assessment of the knowledge of the national PE curriculum related to PL for primary school children (6–12 years old), resulting in the Physical Education Knowledge Questionnaire in Spain (PEKQ-S). It is also intended to evaluate its factor structure and reliability.

Table 3 shows the structure and factor loading of each item. The factor solution comprises two correlated factors: (1) movement, expression, and interaction with the environment and (2) active lifestyles and safe management of physical activity. Following EFA, questions 5, 8 and 11 were excluded. Therefore, a factor structure consisting of nine items grouped into two factors was extracted. Each factor comprises five items. Factor 1 (movement, expression, and interaction with the environment) comprised questions 6, 9, 10, and 12, whereas factor 2 (active lifestyles and safe management of physical activity) included questions 1, 2, 3, 4, and 7.

Table 4 displays the correlations between the PEKQ-S factors: (1) Movement, expression, and interaction with the environment and (2) active lifestyles and safe management of physical activity. Moderate associations were observed between the two factors (rho = 0.362).

Table 5 illustrates the internal consistency, reproducibility, and systematic differences of the PEKQ-S. Overall, the internal consistency ranged from poor to good for all questions, factors, and total scores of the questionnaire (Cronbach's α ranging from 0.508 to 0.832), except for question 8 (Cronbach's α = 0.164). All the questions from the initial and follow-up tests were significantly correlated with the total PEKQ-S score (rho > 0.2).

The reproducibility outcomes revealed fair to substantial test–retest reliability for each question and the total PEKQ-S score (ICC = 0.337–0.696), except for question 8, for which slight agreement was reported (ICC = 0.090). The SEM and SEM% values for each question and the total PEKQ-S score ranged from 0.51–6.28 and from 8.1–36.6, respectively. Similarly, the MDC and MDC% values for each question and the total PEKQ-S score ranged from 1.4–17.4 and from 22.4–101.6, respectively.

Finally, comparison outcomes revealed no significant differences for any of the questions or the total PEKQ-S score (p > 0.05), except for Q1 (p = 0.007), Q2 (p < 0.001), Q7 (p = 0.012), Q12 (p < 0.001) and the total PEKQ-S score (p = 0.041).

This study describes the development process and initial findings on the validity of the PEKQ-S as a tool for evaluating the knowledge of the national PE curriculum related to PL among schoolchildren (aged 6–12). The factor structure, internal consistency and interrater reliability of the PEKQ-S were examined. The results revealed a clear bifactor structure, good overall internal consistency, and substantial test‒retest reliability, with a few exceptions regarding individual items.

According to Cutter's study (3), experts indicated that the cognitive domain of PL should primarily encompass knowledge and understanding of the following: the benefits of being active; opportunities and responsibility for PA practice; how to adopt a nonsedentary lifestyle; problem solving; and planning. On this basis, a comprehensive review of the national PE curriculum was conducted, selecting items closely related to PL knowledge for the development process. Longmuir et al. (19) also developed questionnaires to assess PL knowledge, with input from education professionals and PL expert assessors, as in our study. Once the items for the initial version of the PEKQ-S had been established, content validity was improved by conducting cognitive interviews and an external comprehensibility check with schoolchildren and teachers. This methodology has been shown to improve the validity of questionnaire items (40), thereby increasing confidence in the findings of our study.

Exploratory factor analysis of the PEKQ-S revealed a clear bifactor structure, which is consistent with previous studies identifying multiple dimensions of PE knowledge (41, 42). The identified bifactor solution reflects components that are theoretically aligned with PE knowledge, differentiating between “Movement, Expression and Interaction with the Environment” (Factor 1) and “Active Lifestyles and Safe Management of Physical Activity” (Factor 2). The moderate correlation (r = 0.362) between the two factors supports the hypothesis that, while they are interrelated, they represent distinct dimensions of the overall construct. This differentiation between factors related to motor expression and those linked to active lifestyles is consistent with theoretical models that view PE as a multidimensional construct (43, 44). Similarly, PL itself is treated as a multidimensional construct (45). Notably, the curriculum content selected for the PEKQ-S is related to PL, which further reinforces our bifactor structure.

The scale demonstrated good overall internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.806), which is similar to that reported for other PL assessment instruments, such as the PLAYself (8), the Perceived Physical Literacy Scale for Adolescents (PPLSA) (46) and the PL-C Quest (7). The PL-C Quest (7) is specifically applied to the same target population as in our study. Despite a higher overall internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.92), the part of the scale referring to the cognitive domain (consisting of seven items) showed lower consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.72) than reported in our results. In our study, however, item 8 showed very low consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.164), suggesting that it may not adequately measure the same construct as the other items in its factor. However, as in previous studies (47, 48), items with low performance were also observed, indicating the need for revision or reformulation to improve their alignment with the overall construct. In our study, we decided to eliminate item 8, as the basic knowledge covered by it was already included in other PEKQ-S items. Although item 8 was removed due to low internal consistency, the content it addressed is adequately covered by other items within the “Movement, Expression, and Interaction with the Environment” factor. Therefore, its exclusion does not compromise the conceptual representation of this factor or the overall assessment of the cognitive domain of physical literacy.

Like our findings, other instruments containing items assessing the cognitive domain of PL have reported Cronbach's α values ranging from moderate to good (0.6–0.8) (49, 50), reflecting acceptable internal consistency for recently developed scales in educational settings. A previous study by Longmuir et al. (19) reported higher reliability than our questionnaire did; however, this may be because the interval between the test and retest was shorter, which may have led to greater concordance in the responses due to recall and experience. In terms of reproducibility, the ICC values obtained (0.337–0.696) are comparable to those reported in previous research on self-reported measures of PL (24, 51). However, our findings diverge for question 8, which exhibited poor consistency and reliability. This highlights the need to eliminate it, as its inclusion compromises the usefulness of the questionnaire in longitudinal assessment contexts. A similar issue was found with other PL tools (49, 52), which require item refinement to improve psychometric performance. Although the overall test–retest reliability of the PEKQ-S was acceptable, several items (Q1, Q2, Q7, Q12) demonstrated moderate ICC values (<0.50) and statistically significant test–retest differences. These findings warrant careful interpretation, particularly in longitudinal applications. Moderate ICCs at the item level are common in self-reported knowledge instruments administered to children and may reflect developmental variability, differences in attention or comprehension, or genuine short-term learning effects rather than poor measurement quality. From a practical perspective, the PEKQ-S is more robust for assessing stability and change at the scale or factor level than for detecting subtle changes in individual items. Item-level ICCs below 0.50 should therefore be interpreted cautiously, whereas changes exceeding the established measurement error thresholds at the total or factor level are more likely to represent meaningful change. Overall, these results suggest that the PEKQ-S is suitable for group-level assessment and for monitoring meaningful improvements in PE-related knowledge over time, while minor item-level fluctuations are expected and should be considered in the context of typical learning processes in school-aged children.

One of the main limitations of our study is the small sample size, which comes from schools in the autonomous community of Extremadura. Therefore, it is unclear whether the study sample is representative of the Spanish child population as a whole. Future studies should confirm the structure of this questionnaire via a larger, more representative sample that includes a greater number of schools and autonomous communities.

With respect to the age range, it should be noted that samples from the first year of primary school were excluded, as the questionnaire was not suitable for this stage of education and could have affected the responses. However, there is a good reason for excluding this group: it is the first year in which PE is taught. Therefore, asking them about content or learning that they have not yet received at school might not be valid. Therefore, if PL assessment instruments are to be developed for early childhood education in future studies, the first year of primary school should also be included alongside preschool.

Finally, it should also be noted that the self-reported nature of the PEKQ-S itself is considered a limiting factor, as it makes the instrument susceptible to recall bias, subjectivity and social desirability.

Given the lack of significant results in the cognitive domain in all previous studies (12, 39) that have applied the CAPL-2 in Spain, this study is the first to offer the development and validation of a knowledge questionnaire adapted to the sociocultural and curricular-educational characteristics of Spanish children in terms of PL. Specifically, the PEKQ-S is the first instrument to assess the knowledge of primary school children in relation to the contents of the national PE curriculum for PL, providing a comprehensive measurement of two differentiated factors: “Movement, Expression and Interaction with the Environment” (Factor 1) and “Active Lifestyles and Safe Management of Physical Activity” (Factor 2). This facilitates more targeted instruction and curriculum planning on the basis of students’ knowledge levels. The questionnaire can identify specific areas of weakness in PE knowledge across different age groups or school contexts. This finding supports the implementation of evidence-based interventions and strategies to improve PL-related outcomes, particularly in the cognitive dimension. Moreover, the results from the PEKQ-S can guide professional development for PE teachers by highlighting areas where students lack conceptual understanding, prompting educators to adjust pedagogical approaches and enhance instructional quality in PE.

From a practical perspective, the PEKQ-S may serve as a useful foundational tool; however, its application in other Spanish-speaking contexts or educational stages would require appropriate cultural and curricular adaptation. Alignment with local physical education curricula and age-specific educational guidelines is essential to ensure the validity and relevance of the instrument beyond its original context. In terms of policy, as the first culturally adapted PL knowledge tool in Spain, the PEKQ-S can serve as a foundation for national and regional research studies and contribute data to international PL discussions. Its use in longitudinal or intervention studies will help track progress and the impact of PE reforms.

Finally, this study aligns with a recent article on the development of the first assessment model for PLs in Spain: the SPLA-C (32). In this Delphi study, national experts decided that this knowledge questionnaire should form part of this new assessment model for PLs in Spain. As part of the SPLA-C model, the PEKQ-S enables schools and policymakers to track students’ development in the cognitive domain of PL. This information can be used to design more holistic PE programs that address not only physical skills but also knowledge and understanding of movement, health, and physical activity.

Overall, the PEKQ-S was found to be a feasible, valid and reliable tool for assessing knowledge of PE content related to PL among schoolchildren (aged 6–12). The PEKQ-S clearly has a bifactor structure, demonstrating acceptable internal consistency and moderate to substantial test‒retest reliability for the majority of questions in a retest conducted within 15 days. It is also the first instrument to assess schoolchildren's knowledge of the cognitive domain in terms of PL and basic knowledge of the Spanish PE curriculum. The PEKQ-S is part of the first model of PL assessment in Spain: the SPLA-C.