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Background: There is a need for an instrument to measure participation and independence in children with disabilities. FUNDES-Child-SE has its origin in the participation questionnaire Child and Adolescent Scale of Participation. Aims: Test the psychometric properties of internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Material and methods: This cross-sectional study included caregivers of 163 children with disability aged 6–18 years, 59 of whom were also included in the test-retest study. Descriptive statistics were used to evaluate the proportions of valid ratings. Internal consistency and test-retest reliability were tested through Cronbach’s alpha and the intra-class correlation coefficient. Results: The amount of not relevant/not applicable ratings was substantial but varied between items and subdomains. Internal consistency was acceptable (0.8–0.95), and the test-retest was marginal to excellent (0.73–0.95). Conclusions: The reliability together with the content validity support the use of the FUNDES-Child-SE to measure participation and independence in children with disabilities. However, results should be interpreted with caution due to the small sample size and possible selection bias. Modifications to reduce the not relevant/not applicable responses should be investigated together with the instrument’s responsiveness. Significance: FUNDES-Child-SE can be used to facilitate a discussion of participation and independence and to plan interventions in a habilitation setting. 

Background: FUNDES-Child-SE is a proxy rating questionnaire for measuring participation and independence in children with disabilities in a Swedish context. It includes the components of frequency of attendance, engagement and independence. The original, Taiwanese FUNDES-Child 7.0, has previously been found to have a four-factor structure for frequency of participation and a two-factor structure for independence. The aim of this study was to test the factor structure in FUNDES-Child-SE. The factor structure is an important part of construct validity. Methods: Caregivers of 163 children with disabilities aged 6–18 years participated in this cross-sectional study. Exploratory factor analysis was used to find the factor structure for Engagement. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the factor structure for all three components. Results: The proposed factor structure for frequency of participation (daily living participation frequency, mobility participation frequency, learning participation frequency and community participation frequency) and independence (daily living independence and social participation independence) fit with data from FUNDES-Child-SE after excluding three to five items and adding two to five covariances of residuals. In the engagement component, two factors, named engagement in informal activities and engagement in formal activities, were found. After excluding one item and adding 10 covariances of residuals, the factor structure had an acceptable fit to data. Conclusions: Differences in components' factor structure indicate that attendance and engagement are separate aspects of participation. Before using numeric scores from FUNDES-Child-SE in clinical settings, responsiveness and interpretability should be evaluated.

Adolescents' participation in physical exercise (PE) in sports clubs and self-organised training has decreased over time, while screen-time (ST) has increased. Boys exercise more and play more video games than girls, and adolescents without disabilities exercise more than adolescents with disabilities. This study aims to explore trends in patterns of PE and ST, and the association with gender and disability. Cross-sectional data from 3949 Swedish adolescents aged 12–14 and 15–18 years were used. Participation in sports, training, watching TV & movies, and playing video games was analysed annually for 2013–2019 by hierarchical cluster analysis with k means rotation. Clusters' centroids were compared across years. Associations with gender and disability were tested with regression analysis. In both age groups, five to six clusters were identified each year. Most adolescents are in exercising patterns. The proportions in patterns of sporting and ST increased between 2013–2015 and 15–18-year-olds in not-exercising patterns decreased continuously. Exercising and not-exercising patterns show stable trends, while ST patterns no longer have similar structures after 2016. More clusters in 2013–2016 than 2017–2019 are associated with gender. No cluster in 12–14-year-olds and four clusters in 15–18-year-olds are associated with disability. The study provides a new perspective on trends in patterns of PE and ST from 2013 to 2019 in Swedish adolescents. Results indicate an increased polarisation in activity patterns yet decreased polarisation between genders, and that adolescents with disabilities have the same activity patterns as other adolescents. Further research into other factors potentially influencing adolescents' activity patterns is needed.