IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i9p4988-d550383.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Changes in Motor Competence after a Brief Physical Education Intervention Program in 4 and 5-Year-Old Preschool Children

Author

Listed:
  • Rubén Navarro-Patón

    (Departamento de Didácticas Aplicadas, Facultad de Formación del Profesorado, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 27001 Lugo, Spain)

  • Julien Brito-Ballester

    (Facultad de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, Universidad Europea del Atlántico, 39011 Santander, Spain)

  • Silvia Pueyo Villa

    (Facultad de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, Universidad Europea del Atlántico, 39011 Santander, Spain)

  • Vanessa Anaya

    (Facultad de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, Universidad Europea del Atlántico, 39011 Santander, Spain)

  • Marcos Mecías-Calvo

    (Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Europea del Atlántico, 39011 Santander, Spain
    Centro de Investigación y Tecnología Industrial de Cantabria (CITICAN), 39011 Santander, Spain)

Abstract

Low motor competence (MC) can cause low participation in physical activities in preschool children, and together with a high caloric intake, it can lead to obesity. Interventions on motor skills are effective in the short term to improve MC, therefore the objectives of this study were (1) to investigate the effect of a short six-week program on levels of motor competence in preschool children, and (2) to examine the effects of gender-based intervention. A total of 156 preschool children (5.20 ± 0.54 years old) from Lugo (Spain) participated. A quasi-experimental pre–post-test design was used with a control group of 76 students. The Movement Assessment Battery for Children—2nd Edition (MABC-2) was used to collect the data. Significant differences between the control and experimental groups were found after the intervention program in aiming and catching ( p < 0.001), balance ( p < 0.001), the total score of eight tests ( p < 0.001), and total percentile score ( p < 0.001). The results regarding gender in the experimental group showed a reduction in differences with respect to the initial results except in aiming and catching, where scores were higher in boys. The data suggest that the application of specific intervention programs in MC could positively influence the improvement of MC in preschool children, thus reducing differences between genders.

Suggested Citation

  • Rubén Navarro-Patón & Julien Brito-Ballester & Silvia Pueyo Villa & Vanessa Anaya & Marcos Mecías-Calvo, 2021. "Changes in Motor Competence after a Brief Physical Education Intervention Program in 4 and 5-Year-Old Preschool Children," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(9), pages 1-14, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:9:p:4988-:d:550383
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/9/4988/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/9/4988/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rubén Navarro-Patón & Joaquín Lago-Ballesteros & Víctor Arufe-Giráldez & Alberto Sanmiguel-Rodríguez & Carlos Lago-Fuentes & Marcos Mecías-Calvo, 2021. "Gender Differences on Motor Competence in 5-Year-Old Preschool Children Regarding Relative Age," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(6), pages 1-10, March.
    2. Donna Niemistö & Taija Finni & Eero A. Haapala & Marja Cantell & Elisa Korhonen & Arja Sääkslahti, 2019. "Environmental Correlates of Motor Competence in Children—The Skilled Kids Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(11), pages 1-17, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Laura Delgado-Lobete & Rebeca Montes-Montes & Sonia Pértega-Díaz & Sergio Santos-del-Riego & José-Manuel Cruz-Valiño & Marina M. Schoemaker, 2020. "Interrelation of Individual, Country and Activity Constraints in Motor Activities of Daily Living among Typically Developing Children: A Cross-sectional Comparison of Spanish and Dutch Populations," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(5), pages 1-13, March.
    2. Patrizia Tortella & Monika Haga & Håvard Lorås & Guido Francesco Fumagalli & Hermundur Sigmundsson, 2022. "Effects of Free Play and Partly Structured Playground Activity on Motor Competence in Preschool Children: A Pragmatic Comparison Trial," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(13), pages 1-14, June.
    3. Pim Koolwijk & Ester de Jonge & Remo Mombarg & Teun Remmers & Dave Van Kann & Ingrid van Aart & Geert Savelsbergh & Sanne de Vries, 2024. "Changes in Motor Competence of 4–8-Year-Old Children: A Longitudinal Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(2), pages 1-13, February.
    4. Rubén Navarro-Patón & Silvia Pueyo Villa & Juan Luis Martín-Ayala & Mariacarla Martí González & Marcos Mecías-Calvo, 2021. "Is Quarter of Birth a Risk Factor for Developmental Coordinator Disorder in Preschool Children?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(11), pages 1-10, May.
    5. Jaime Carcamo-Oyarzun & Isaac Estevan & Christian Herrmann, 2020. "Association between Actual and Perceived Motor Competence in School Children," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(10), pages 1-15, May.
    6. Daniel Mendoza-Castejón & Vicente Javier Clemente-Suárez, 2020. "Psychophysiological Stress Markers and Behavioural Differences between Rural and City Primary School Students," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(9), pages 1-12, May.
    7. Nicolas Aguilar-Farias & Francisca Roman Mella & Andrea Cortinez-O’Ryan & Jaime Carcamo-Oyarzun & Alvaro Cerda & Marcelo Toledo-Vargas & Sebastian Miranda-Marquez & Susana Cortes-Morales & Teresa Balb, 2022. "Redrawing Cities with Children and Adolescents: Development of a Framework and Opportunity Index for Wellbeing—The REDibuja Study Protocol," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-13, April.
    8. Raphael M. Herr & Katharina Diehl & Sven Schneider & Nina Osenbruegge & Nicole Memmer & Steffi Sachse & Stephanie Hoffmann & Benjamin Wachtler & Max Herke & Claudia R. Pischke & Anna Novelli & Jennife, 2021. "Which Meso-Level Characteristics of Early Childhood Education and Care Centers Are Associated with Health, Health Behavior, and Well-Being of Young Children? Findings of a Scoping Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(9), pages 1-26, May.
    9. Luís Lopes & Rute Santos & Manuel Coelho-e-Silva & Catherine Draper & Jorge Mota & Boris Jidovtseff & Cain Clark & Mirko Schmidt & Philip Morgan & Michael Duncan & Wesley O’Brien & Peter Bentsen & Eva, 2020. "A Narrative Review of Motor Competence in Children and Adolescents: What We Know and What We Need to Find Out," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(1), pages 1-19, December.
    10. Ilir Gllareva & Nebojša Trajković & Draženka Mačak & Tijana Šćepanović & Anja Kostić Zobenica & Aleksandar Pajić & Besim Halilaj & Florim Gallopeni & Dejan M. Madić, 2020. "Anthropometric and Motor Competence Classifiers of Swimming Ability in Preschool Children—A Pilot Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-14, August.
    11. Donna Niemistö & Taija Finni & Marja Cantell & Elisa Korhonen & Arja Sääkslahti, 2020. "Individual, Family, and Environmental Correlates of Motor Competence in Young Children: Regression Model Analysis of Data Obtained from Two Motor Tests," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(7), pages 1-17, April.
    12. Eileen Africa & Odelia Van Stryp & Martin Musálek, 2021. "The Influence of Cultural Experiences on the Associations between Socio-Economic Status and Motor Performance as Well as Body Fat Percentage of Grade One Learners in Cape Town, South Africa," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(1), pages 1-14, December.
    13. Cristina Menescardi & Isaac Estevan, 2021. "Parental and Peer Support Matters: A Broad Umbrella of the Role of Perceived Social Support in the Association between Children’s Perceived Motor Competence and Physical Activity," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(12), pages 1-12, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:9:p:4988-:d:550383. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.