How process evaluation of school-based physical activity interventions is reported: a scoping review

Regular physical activity (PA) is essential for the physical, psychological, and social health of children and adolescents, yet physical inactivity remains highly prevalent. Schools are widely recognised as a key setting for PA promotion, and numerous school-based PA interventions have been developed. However, these interventions have demonstrated limited or inconsistent effectiveness, highlighting the need to better understand how they are implemented in real-world school contexts. Process evaluation (PE) provides insight into how interventions are delivered, how participants and implementers engage with them, and how contextual factors influence implementation. PE can help explain intervention outcomes, identify barriers and facilitators to implementation, and inform adaptation, replication, and scale-up. Despite its importance, PE in school-based PA interventions is often inconsistently and incompletely reported. This may be partly due to variability in how PE is defined, which components are assessed, and how evaluative frameworks are interpreted and applied, particularly within school settings. The purpose of this scoping review is to systematically map how PE is reported in school-based PA intervention studies involving children and adolescents aged 5–18 years. The review aims to identify (1) which PE components (e.g., fidelity, dose, reach, adaptations, and context) are reported; (2) which frameworks or guidance are used to inform PE and how they are interpreted; (3) the methodological approaches, data collection methods, and data sources used for PE; and (4) gaps and inconsistencies in PE reporting. The review will be conducted in accordance with PRISMA-ScR guidelines. A systematic search of relevant electronic databases will identify eligible school-based PA intervention studies that explicitly report PE, either embedded within outcome evaluation papers or as stand-alone PE publications. Data will be charted using a structured extraction form and synthesised using descriptive numerical summaries and narrative synthesis. The findings will provide an overview of current PE reporting practices and inform more transparent and consistent reporting of PE in future school-based PA intervention research.