The relationship between actual motor competence ...

Journal of Sports Sciences

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The relationship between actual motor competence and physical activity in children: mediating roles of perceived motor competence and health-related physical fitness Zeinab Khodaverdi, Abbas Bahram, David Stodden & Anoshirvan Kazemnejad To cite this article: Zeinab Khodaverdi, Abbas Bahram, David Stodden & Anoshirvan Kazemnejad (2015): The relationship between actual motor competence and physical activity in children: mediating roles of perceived motor competence and health-related physical fitness, Journal of Sports Sciences, DOI: 10.1080/02640414.2015.1122202 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2015.1122202

Published online: 22 Dec 2015.

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Date: 22 December 2015, At: 10:47

JOURNAL OF SPORTS SCIENCES, 2015 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2015.1122202

The relationship between actual motor competence and physical activity in children: mediating roles of perceived motor competence and health-related physical fitness Zeinab Khodaverdia, Abbas Bahramb, David Stoddena and Anoshirvan Kazemnejad

c

Downloaded by [zeinab khodaverdi] at 10:47 22 December 2015

a Department of Physical Education & Athletic, Training, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA; bDepartment of Motor Behavior, Faculty of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran; cDepartment of Biostatistics, Faculty of Medicine, Tarbait Modarres University, Tehran, Iran

ABSTRACT

ARTICLE HISTORY

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether perceived motor competence and components of health-related physical fitness mediated the relationship between actual motor competence and physical activity in 8- to 9-year-old Iranian girls. A convenience sample of 352 girls (mean age = 8.7, SD = 0.3 years) participated in the study. Actual motor competence, perceived motor competence and children’s physical activity were assessed using the Test of Gross Motor Development-2, the physical ability sub-scale of Marsh’s Self-Description Questionnaire and Physical Activity Questionnaire for Older Children, respectively. Body mass index, the 600 yard run/walk, curl-ups, push-ups, and back-saver sit and reach tests assessed health-related physical fitness. Preacher & Hayes (2004) bootstrap method was used to assess the potential mediating effects of fitness and perceived competence on the direct relationship between actual motor competence and physical activity. Regression analyses revealed that aerobic fitness (b = .28, 95% CI = [.21, .39]), as the only fitness measure, and perceived competence (b = .16, 95% CI = [.12, .32]) were measures that mediated the relationship between actual motor competence and physical activity with the models. Development of strategies targeting motor skill acquisition, children’s self-perceptions of competence and cardiorespiratory fitness should be targeted to promote girls’ moderate-to-vigorous physical activity.

Accepted 14 November 2015

Introduction It is well known that physical activity (PA) is important for health (United States Department of Health and Human Services [USDHS], 2008; Warburton, Whitney, & Bredin, 2006). Evidence also indicates regular PA participation in childhood and adolescence facilitates a physically active lifestyle in future years (Telama et al., 2014). Although children’s PA levels generally decrease with age (Nader, Bradley, Houts, McRitchie, & O’Brien, 2008), PA behaviours are learned and can be changed or modified (Sallis, Berry, Broyles, McKenzie, & Nader, 1995). Therefore, the identification of correlates and mechanisms of PA and their interactions are important for developing strategies to improve children’s health. While PA is a global descriptor of all movements that an individual performs (Powell, Caspersen, Koplan, & Ford, 1989), physical fitness can be defined as the capacity to perform PA (Ortega, Ruiz, Castillo, & Sjöström, 2008). Specifically, healthrelated physical fitness is defined by five components: cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular strength, muscle endurance, flexibility and body composition (Payne & Isaacs, 2002). Higher levels of these components also are related to a physically active lifestyle (Bouchard, Blair, & Haskell, 2007; Hands, Larkin, Parker, Straker, & Perry, 2009; Huang & Malina, 2002;

CONTACT Zeinab Khodaverdi © 2015 Taylor & Francis

KEYWORDS

Physical activity; aerobic fitness; actual motor competence; self-perception

Katzmarzyk, Malina, Song, & Bouchard, 1998; Sallis, Mckenzie, & Alcaraz, 1993) in children and adults. Like PA, most aspects of health-related physical fitness are positively associated with health outcomes (IOM, 2012). Hypothesised potential barriers of PA participation in children are low actual and perceived motor competence, low health-related physical fitness levels, and obesity (Hands, Parker, & Larkin, 2002; Stodden et al., 2008). If these potential barriers are addressed via intervention, and children and adolescents have positive PA experiences, youth may be more likely to not only become physically active but also maintain PA and health-related physical fitness levels throughout the lifespan (Cantell, Crawford, & Doyle-Baker, 2008; Dennison, Straus, Mellits, & Charney, 1988; Hands et al., 2009; Stodden, True, Langendorfer, & Gao, 2013; Taylor, Blair, Cummings, Wun, & Malina, 1999). Actual motor competence refers to the degree of skilled performance in a wide range of motor tasks as well as the movement coordination and control underlying a particular motor outcome (Castelli & Valley, 2007). Literature consistently demonstrates low-to-moderate positive relationships between actual motor competence, and PA and health-related physical fitness in children and adolescents (Holfelder & Schott, 2014;

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Khodaverdi, Bahram, & Robinson, 2015; Lloyd, Saunders, Bremer, & Tremblay, 2014; Lubans, Morgan, Cliff, Barnett, & Okely, 2010). Further, actual motor competence has been hypothesised to be a primary mechanism for promoting synergistic and recursive relationships with PA, health-related physical fitness and perceived motor competence, which may produce a positive or negative spiral of healthy behaviours and traits across childhood and into adolescence (Babic et al., 2014; Barnett, Morgan, van Beurden, & Beard, 2008; Barnett, Morgan, van Beurden, Ball, & Lubans, 2011; Barnett, van Beurden, Morgan, Brooks, & Beard, 2009; Cantell et al., 2008; Lloyd et al., 2014; Stodden et al., 2008). Perceived motor competence is an individual’s awareness and belief of their capability to perform both gross and fine motor tasks (Rudisill, Mahar, & Meaney, 1993). The perception of competence is verified when performance outcomes align with an individual’s perception of their own competence, which serves to motivate the individual and increase persistence (Harter, 1978). Studies that have explored the relationship between actual motor competence, health-related physical fitness, PA and perceived motor competence also demonstrate low-to-moderate positive correlations (Barnett et al., 2008, 2009; Carroll & Loumidis, 2001; Cattuzzo et al., 2014; Crocker, Eklund, & Kowalski, 2000; Davison, Symons-Downs, & Birch, 2006; Raudsepp, Liblik, & Hannus, 2002). Studies also have demonstrated that perceived motor competence mediates the relationship between actual motor competence and PA, and actual motor competence and cardiorespiratory endurance, but only for object control skills (Barnett et al., 2008, 2009). These results provide support for the Stodden et al. (2008) model suggesting that perceived motor competence will mediate the relationship between actual motor competence and PA. In addition, Stodden et al. (2008) hypothesised that health-related physical fitness will also mediate the relationship between actual motor competence and PA. However, no studies have examined the potential mediating effect of health-related physical fitness on the actual motor competence/PA relationship. In addition, no studies have taken into consideration all four factors in the same study. No published studies have examined relationships between actual motor competence, health-related physical fitness, perceived motor competence and PA in Iranian children and overall, there is scant documentation on any of these variables in Iranian children. It has been suggested that Asian children (including Iran) may be less active than English-speaking children (Booth, Okely, Chey, Bauman, & Macaskill, 2002), although little empirical evidence supports this idea. Cultural differences in exercise behaviours and choices for PA in Iranian children also may exist; however, no evidence has documented this idea. Finally, as girls generally engage in less PA than boys (Keller, 2008) and are at risk of obesity and chronic disease related to obesity more than boys (Summerbell et al., 2003), there is a critical need to address girls’ PA patterns and specific correlates of PA for girls. This is a major concern in Iran because Iranian girls also may be less physically active than boys (Ziaee et al., 2006). The aim of study was to examine actual motor competence, PA, health-related physical fitness and perceived motor competence in Iranian girls and to examine whether perceptions of motor competence and components of

health-related physical fitness mediate the relationship between actual motor competence and PA, as suggested by Stodden et al. (2008).

Method Participants Third grade girls (N = 2160) in public primary schools located in the urban southwestern part of Tehran Province, Iran, were invited to participate in the study. Written consent from parents and children was obtained for 352 girls aged 8–9 years. The sample included children in the low-moderate range of socioeconomic background and no reported history of learning difficulties or behavioural, physical, neurological or orthopaedic problems. Accordingly, all 352 girls constituted the final sample and completed the Iranian versions of physical ability sub-scale of Self-Description Questionnaire-1 (Bahram and Shafizade, Unpublished result), the Test of Gross Motor Development-2 (Ulrich, 2000), Physical Activity Questionnaire for Older Children (Faghihimani et al., 2010) and five tests of health-related physical fitness including curl-ups, push-ups, body mass index (BMI), backsaver sit and reach (Welk & Meredith, 2008) and 600-yard running/walking (McSwegin, Pemberton, Petray, & Going, 1989) (see Table 1).

Measures Actual motor competence The Test of Gross Motor Development-2 was used to examine actual motor competence (Ulrich, 2000). The Test of Gross Motor Development-2 is subdivided into two areas: locomotor skills (run, gallop, hop, leap, jump and slide) and object control skills (two-hand strike, stationary bounce, catch, kick, throw and underhand roll). The child executes each skill twice and skill performance is evaluated based on qualitative performance criteria, with scores of 1 or 0 indicating the presence or absence of criterion tested. The highest total score for the two subtests is 48 points. Raw scores of the two subtests are summed to create gross motor quotient (GMQ) (Ulrich, 2000). Test of Gross Motor Development-2 is valid and reliable for 3- to 10-year-old children and internal consistency coefficients for locomotor (.78), object control (.74) and GMQ (.80) have been documented (Zarezade, Farrokhi, & Kazemnejad, 2011). Table 1. Sample characteristics and descriptive statistics (N = 352). Age (years) GMQ (raw) Locomotor skill (raw) Object control skill (raw) PMC BMI Curl-up (count) Push-up (count) Back-saver sit and reach (cm) 600-yard running/walking (s) PA

M

SD

8.78 76.26 41.92 34.34 34.77 15.68 27.10 12.65 30.96 226.61 3.31

0.32 9.28 6.57 5.51 4.43 2.51 16.82 7.57 4.90 39.53 0.88

Notes: M = mean; SD = standard deviation; GMQ = gross motor quotient; PMC = perceived motor competence; PA = physical activity; BMI: body mass index [weight (kg)/height2 (m2)].

JOURNAL OF SPORTS SCIENCES

Health-related physical fitness A number of physical fitness components were evaluated using field tests from the FITNESSGRAM. Tests from the FITNESSGRAM included upper-body strength/endurance (90◦ push-up), abdominal muscle strength/endurance (curl-up), body composition [BMI – (kg)/height (m)2] and hamstring/ low back flexibility (back-saver sit and reach). Test administration procedures are described elsewhere (Welk & Meredith, 2008). The 600-yard running/walking test (McSwegin et al., 1989) was used to measure aerobic fitness. 600-yard running/walking: Students were instructed to run/ walk the distance as fast as possible around a marked rectangle (9 × 18 m, the size of a volleyball field) and total time (in seconds) was recorded for every student.

Inter-rater objectivity by two examiners, using kappa (Safrit & Wood, 1995) averaged (.87) among components for all skills. The physical subscale of Self-Description Questionnaire-1 and the PA questionnaire were completed by all children at the same time in a quiet classroom. Health-related physical fitness tests also were performed in either the classroom or school yard during the 2 weeks following actual motor competence testing.

Statistical analyses

The Physical Activity Questionnaire for Older Children was used to determine girl’s moderate-to-vigorous PA levels. The Physical Activity Questionnaire for Older Children is cost and time efficient, easy to administer to large-scale populations, like sample of this study. This questionnaire is self-administered, 7-day recall that assesses moderate-to-vigorous PA during the school years in individuals aged 8–14 years (Kowalski, Crocker, & Faulkner, 1997). Scores of all items were summed and averaged to create total score of PA level ranging from 1 to 5 where 1 indicates low level of PA. This questionnaire has been supported as a valid and reliable measure in Iranian children Cronbach’s alpha of (.89) in Iranian children (Faghihimani et al., 2010).

Pearson product–moment correlation (r), simple and multiple regressions were used to investigate associations between the variables. The Preacher and Hayes Bootstrapping method (Preacher & Hayes, 2004) was used to examine mediations in association between actual motor skills (locomotor and objectcontrol skills) and PA. Bootstrapping is becoming the most popular method of testing mediation because it does not require the normality assumption to be met, and because it can be effectively utilised with smaller sample sizes (N < 25) (Preacher & Hayes, 2004). However, mediation continues to be most frequently determined using the logic of Baron and Kenny (1986). According to Baron and Kenney method, a variable is a mediator when it meets the following conditions: (a) variation in the predictor variable must be accounted for in the presumed mediator (i.e., they must be related), (b) variations in predictor variable accounts for variations in the dependent variable, (c) variations in the mediator accounts for variations in the dependent variable and (d) when you statistically control for the potential mediator, a relationship that once existed between the predictor and dependent variables no longer exists or is significantly reduced. The more common result is that the strength of the relationship for the direct path is weakened, but remains significant. Hayes offered a macro that calculates bootstrapping directly within SPSS, a computer program used for statistical analyses. This method provides point estimates and confidence intervals by which one can assess the significance or non-significance of a mediation effect. Point estimates reveal the mean over the number of bootstrapped samples and if zero does not fall between the resulting confidence intervals of the bootstrapping method, we can confidently conclude that there is a significant mediation effect to report. Data analysis was carried out via SPSS version 16.0 for Windows (Chicago, IL, USA). Statistical significance was set at alpha equal or less than .05.

Procedure

Results

Prior to data collection, we obtained permission to conduct the study from the university’s Human Subjects Review Board. All the testing took place during school in the autumn/winter of 2012. Children were tested by the primary author and a research assistant who had been trained in the testing protocols. The Test of Gross Motor Development-2 was executed in the school yard within a span of 4 weeks. Standardised procedures and directions for the Test of Gross Motor Development-2 were followed and children were videotaped so their movement patterns could be coded at a later time.

A summary of participants’ descriptive statistics is provided in Table 1. Normal probability and residual plots of the participant data indicated that the data were normally distributed and linear with respect to the measures (see Table 1 for descriptive data on all measures). All average measures of health-related physical fitness were above the minimum for their age (relative to normative data) (Welk & Meredith, 2008). Girls’ PA was generally in the moderate range (M = 3.31 and SD = .88) (Dan, Mohd Nasir, & Zalilah, 2007) and mean motor skill standard scores of this sample was higher than age-specific normative

Perceived motor competence Downloaded by [zeinab khodaverdi] at 10:47 22 December 2015

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The Self-Description Questionnaire-1 is designed to measure multiple dimensions of self-concept and was used to measure perceived motor competence. The Self-Description Questionnaire-1 assesses three areas of academic self-concept (reading, mathematics and general school self-concept), four areas of non-academic self-concept (physical ability, physical appearance, peer relationships and parent relationships) and General Self Concept scale (Marsh, 1988). The Self-Description Questionnaire-1 was selected for the current study as it is the only item that has been proven reliable and validated for use with Iranian children. Only the physical ability subscale of SelfDescription Questionnaire-1 was included in this analysis as it relates to their ability to do motor tasks, with a range of possible scores from 5–40. In this sample, the internal consistency coefficients for the physical ability subscale was α = .87.

Physical activity

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Table 2. Pearson’s bivariate correlations among measures (N = 352). PA GMQ LS OCS PMC AF PU CU FL

GMQ .39**

LS .44** .81**

OCS .13 .71** .17

PMC .33** .22** .22** .11

AF .74** .37** .43** .12 .28**

PU .06 .16 .10 .15 .12 .12

CU −.08 .08 .10 .02 .07 .08 .10

FL .11 .09 .08 .05 .13 −.12 −.12 .13

Discussion BMI .02 .03 .13 .03 .002 .05 .05 .04 −.07

Notes: **P ≤ .01 GMQ = gross motor quotient; PMC = perceived motor competence; PA = physical activity; LS = locomotor skill; OCS = object control skill; AF = aerobic fitness; CU = curl-up; PU = push-up; FL = flexibility; BMI = body mass index.

Mediation Model


Mediating Variable: Perceived motor competence R2 = .06 b = .22, p = .01

b = .28, p < .001

Independent Variable: Locomotor skill competence

Dependent Variable: Physical activity R2 = .58

Indirect effect, b = .16, 95% CI [.12, .32] Direct effect, b = 0.32, p < .001 Indirect effect, b = .28, 95% CI [.21, .39]

Independent Variable: Locomotor skill competence

b = –1.37, p = .01

Dependent Variable: Physical activity R2 = .58

b = –.34, p < .001 Mediating Variable: Aerobic fitness R2 = .18

Figure 1. Mediating roles of perceived motor competence and aerobic fitness in association between locomotor skill competence and physical activity.

data (object control skill = 25, SD = 5, locomotor skill = 34, SD = 3) (Zarezade et al., 2011). Table 2 indicates bivariate correlations between measures. Statistically significant correlations among variables were generally low (r = .20–.39) to moderate (r = .40–.59) as defined by Zhu (2012). Interestingly, BMI was not correlated to any measure, which is in contrast to recent literature (D’Hondt et al., 2011; Lopes, Stodden, Bianchi, Maia, & Rodrigues, 2012). The model (see Figure 1) indicated that perceived motor competence and aerobic fitness did mediate the relationship between locomotor skill and PA with the overall model explaining 58% of the variance. There was a significant indirect effect of locomotor skill competency on PA through perceived motor competence (b = .16, 95% CI = [.12, .32]) and aerobic fitness (b = .28, 95% CI = [.21, .39]). Aerobic fitness was the only health-related physical fitness measure that was included as a mediator in the full model. Perceived motor competence and components of healthrelated physical fitness did not mediate association between object control skill and PA.

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the mediating role of perceived motor competence and components of health-related physical fitness on the relationship between actual motor competence (locomotor and object control skills) and PA in 8- to 9-year-old Iranian girls. Descriptive results from this study indicate the significant associations among all the measures were among locomotor skill, PA, aerobic fitness and perceived actual motor competence. These correlations were generally low to moderate. It was interesting to note that locomotor and object control skills were not correlated in this sample, which may partially explain why object control skill was not correlated to PA, health-related physical fitness or perceived motor competence. Object control skill generally develops later than locomotor skill and has been shown to not demonstrate a strong association with PA (Barnett et al., 2009, 2011) or fitness (Barnett et al., 2008; Stodden, Gao, Goodway, & Langendorfer, 2014) until late childhood/adolescence. Thus, data from this sample align with previous data as girls demonstrated lower overall object control raw scores compared to the locomotor score, and were not associated with PA or fitness. Indeed, this association is in part due to gender differences as literature suggested that locomotor skills relate most strongly to girls’ PA while object control skills related most strongly to boys’ PA (Morgan, Okely, Cliff, Jones, & Baur, 2008). Overall, results demonstrated perceived motor competence and aerobic fitness mediate the relationship between locomotor skill competence and PA, and partially support the conceptual model of Stodden et al. (2008) that proposes actual motor competence synergistically relates to PA indirectly through its relationship with perceived motor competence and fitness. These findings contribute to the literature in two important ways. First, the findings extend previous research (Vedul-Kjelsås, Sigmundsson, Stensdotter, & Haga, 2012) by demonstrating that locomotor skill competence, perceived motor competence, aerobic fitness and PA are synergistically related in 8- to 9-year-old Iranian girls. Second, the results extend previous research by Barnett et al. (2008) who indicated that perceived motor competence mediated the relationship between object control skill and PA, and object control skill and aerobic fitness in adolescents. This is the first study to examine the potential mediating effect of perceived motor competence in a younger sample of children as participants from Barnett et al. were adolescents. These data also support the notion that locomotor skill may be more strongly associated to PA and aerobic fitness than object control skills in children (Williams et al., 2008). Object control skills may take on greater significance in their associations to components of health-related physical fitness in late childhood and adolescence (Barnett et al., 2008, 2009, 2011; Stodden et al., 2014). In contrast to other studies (Cattuzzo et al., 2014; D’Hondt et al., 2011; Huang & Malina, 2002; Lopes et al., 2012; Vandendriessche et al., 2011), other aspects of health-related physical fitness (i.e., muscular strength and muscular endurance measures, and BMI) were not associated to actual motor competence or PA in this specific age group. More notably,



BMI was not associated with any measures in this study, which may be explained by the rather low average BMI (15.68) and low standard deviation of BMI (2.51) of the entire sample in this age range (CDC, 2010). Flexibility data are consistent with previous research indicating it is not associated with actual motor competence, PA or other aspects of health-related physical fitness (Dumith, Van Dusen, & Kohl, 2012; Stodden, Langendorfer, & Roberton, 2009) in children or adolescents. Cultural differences in PA behaviours of Iranian girls may account for differences in how specific aspects of healthrelated physical fitness were associated with actual motor competence and PA. Opportunities and constraints originating from a family’s financial situation, as well as national and regional differences in infrastructural endowments and cultural orientations toward PA affect individuals’ PA participation. For example, common types of PA in low- to middleincome and high-income countries/families are different in Iran. Occupational, transport and household domains are the most common physical activities in low-income and middleincome countries, whereas sports and leisure-time activities contribute more to total PA in high-income countries. Moreover, different cultures’ health behaviours are influenced by different cultural beliefs (Badr and Moody, 2005). For example, sports are not perceived as a suitable or desirable pursuit for girls and women in Iran, and they are encouraged to engage in caregiving and family responsibilities and are less likely than boys and men to participate in sports. However, the fact that the mediation models predicted fairly substantial amounts of variance in self-reported PA still suggests the importance of developing locomotor skill competence, aerobic fitness and perceived competence to promote positive behaviours, as noted in the Stodden et al. model. Future research is warranted to examine cultural differences in leisure activity behaviours and physical education priorities that may influence Iranian children’s physical and psychological development trajectories. The large sample and use of validated motor skill, perceived competence and health-related fitness assessments are strengths of this study. However, there are three limitations that should be addressed. First, the self-report PA assessment in this study is a limitation and a more objective PA assessment would be preferred (Kowalski et al., 1997). Second, the findings of this study may have been influenced by the time of year that the study was conducted as seasonal and weather-related conditions during autumn and winter in Iran may have influenced girls’ proximal PA activities and reported levels. Third, as the study design was cross-sectional, causal inferences regarding the relationships between actual motor competence, PA and aerobic fitness are speculative. However, the findings of the present study do support and extend previous research on the potential importance of integrating actual motor competence and cardiorespiratory fitness activities in children as it relates to PA (Barnett et al., 2011; Holfelder & Schott, 2014; Lubans et al., 2010). In addition, promoting perceived motor competence by providing experiences that foster the development of actual motor competence in a variety of activities seem to be important to reverse the trend of decreasing PA across childhood (Babic et al., 2014).

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Conclusion In conclusion, this study further demonstrates the link between physical (actual motor competence and aerobic fitness), behavioural (PA) and psychological development (perceived motor competence) in childhood. Long-term behavioural promotion strategies that target motor skill acquisition, perceptions of competence and aerobic fitness for girls may promote the development of positive health trajectories across childhood (Stodden et al., 2014), adolescence (Barnett et al., 2008, 2009) and into adulthood (Cantell et al., 2008; Stodden et al., 2009, 2014). Future research should examine the impact of developing actual motor competence, perceived motor competence and cardiorespiratory fitness on PA using experimental designs to determine the causal nature of these relationships across childhood, adolescence and their potential impact into adulthood. Also, future research is needed to address relationships between types of skills and PA, cardiorespiratory fitness and perceived motor competence in other cultural surroundings.

Acknowledgements We are grateful to children who participated in this study, their families and the staff of the primary schools for their cooperation.

Disclosure statement No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID Anoshirvan Kazemnejad

http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0143-9635

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