The association between motor proficiency, object control skills and physical fitness during earlier and later childhood: NW-CHILD study

Abstract

Object control skills mastery during earlier childhood is important for the successful generalization thereof during later childhood. Physical fitness is also considered an important health enhancing aspect in children. The relationship between motor proficiency and physical fitness also increases in nature during later childhood. The study had two objectives. The first objective was to determine the association between object control skills mastery during earlier childhood (6 and 9 years) and the application of these object control skills during later childhood (12 years) in children living in the North-West Province of South Africa. Secondly, the study aimed to determine if there is an association between motor proficiency and physical fitness in earlier childhood (6 and 9 years) and later childhood (12 years) in children living in the North-West Province of the Republic of South Africa. This study formed part of the North-West Child Health, Integrated with Learning and Development longitudinal study (2010-2016), which included a baseline and two time point measures (2010, 2013, 2016) and spanned over the seven primary school years (Grades 1, 4 and 7). A stratified random sample of 374 subjects from four different educational districts, twenty schools, representing five different quintiles (1 (low) – 5 (high) socio economic status schools), including both genders (boys=178, 47.59% and girls=196, 52.41%), participated in the study. Statistica for Windows, 2017 was used to perform the analyses. To achieve the first objective results obtained by the Test of Gross Motor Development, Second Edition (TGMD-2) in 2010 and 2013 and the Canadian Assessment of Physical Literacy Obstacle Course (CAPL) in 2016 was used and analysed by means of descriptive statistics, Spearman rank order correlations and stepwise regression analysis. The results revealed that at 6 years, a higher overall and large R2 (32%) contribution to the variance that were found in the CAPL skills and time score at 12 years were found compared to at age 9 (28.1%). Object control skills made a significant contribution of 4.5% at 6-years-old to application of these skills at the age of 12 years, while it also contributed to the explained variance in the completion time of the CAPL at 9-years-old (0.09%; p • 0.05). To achieve the second objective results obtained by means of The Bruininks-Oseretsky Test for Motor-Proficiency, Second Edition Short Form (BOT-2SF) (2010 and 2013), the TGMD-2 (2010 and 2013), and the Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run test (PACER) in 2016 were used and analysed by means of the Spearman Rank Order Correlation and Stepwise Regression Analysis. A significant association between motor proficiency during earlier childhood and physical fitness during later childhood emerged. Gender showed a significant contribution to the association with physical fitness between 6 and 12 years, while socio-economic status had a small, but insignificant impact on the independent variables, and only in boys. This warranted separate stepwise analysis for boys and girls. Motor proficiency of both boys and girls at 6-years-old, contributed significantly (6.8%) to physical fitness at 12 years while object control skills made an additional contribution of 2.4% to the physical fitness of girls. It was concluded that earlier object control skills mastery can provide a baseline from where opportunities for progression or transfer of skills can result in more advanced skilful executions. Motor proficiency at a young age was also found to be relevant to physical fitness during later childhood. Both these positive relationships can contribute to higher physical activity levels and subsequently improve health in general of children during the later stages of their lives.