Children's Assessment of Participation and Enjoyment (CAPE) and Preferences for Activities of Children (PAC)

The CAPE and PAC are companion questionnaires about what a child or young person does outside of school hours — and what they wish they could do. Both present the same 55 everyday activities, illustrated so a child can work through them.

The CAPE asks about the last four months across five dimensions: diversity (how many activities), intensity (how often), enjoyment, who they did it with, and where. The PAC asks a sixth question — how much would you like to do this? — regardless of whether they currently do. Comparing the two is the point: a wide gap between what a child wants and what they actually do points to a barrier worth addressing. Scores group activities as formal or informal, and into five types.

• CanChild Overview

Licensing Notes: Proprietary. Published by Pearson and also available through CanChild at McMaster University. Reproduction requires publisher permission.

Learn More: Scoring works at three levels: an overall participation score, two domain scores splitting the 55 items into 15 formal and 40 informal activities, and five activity-type scores (recreational, active physical, social, skill-based, self-improvement). Because each of the six dimensions can be scored at all three levels, the full output runs to eight scores per dimension — more than most clinicians need, so it's worth deciding in advance which dimension answers your question. Both measures have self-administered and interviewer-assisted versions.