IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/sagope/v6y2016i1p2158244015626226.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Motor Proficiency in Young Children

Author

Listed:
  • Fotini Venetsanou
  • Antonis Kambas

Abstract

This study aimed to examine motor proficiency in young children, focusing on potential gender differences. For that purpose, the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency–Long Form (BOTMP-LF) was administered to 540 children (272 boys), 4½ to 6 years old. First, the 2 (sex) × 4 (age groups) ANOVA computed on children’s total BOTMP-LF scores showed that age had a statistically significant effect, whereas gender did not. Second, the one-way MANCOVA applied on subtest scores, with age as covariate, revealed statistical significant gender differences; however, η 2 values were found to be small or moderate. Finally, the MANCOVA applied on items where significant gender differences have been reported showed a significant effect of gender. Nonetheless, η 2 values exceeded the limit of practical significance only on two items (“standing on preferred leg on floor†, “throwing a ball at a target with preferred hand†) that are associated with gender-stereotyped activities. It can be concluded that (a) besides statistical significance, effect sizes should be examined for the results of a study to be adequately interpreted; (b) young boys’ and girls’ motor proficiency is similar rather than different. Gender differences in specific skills should be used for movement programs to be individualized.

Suggested Citation

  • Fotini Venetsanou & Antonis Kambas, 2016. "Motor Proficiency in Young Children," SAGE Open, , vol. 6(1), pages 21582440156, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:6:y:2016:i:1:p:2158244015626226
    DOI: 10.1177/2158244015626226
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2158244015626226
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/2158244015626226?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nadia Cristina Valentini & Marcelo Gonçalves Duarte & Larissa Wagner Zanella & Glauber Carvalho Nobre, 2022. "Test of Gross Motor Development-3: Item Difficulty and Item Differential Functioning by Gender and Age with Rasch Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-17, July.
    2. Stefanos Boutios & Giovanni Fiorilli & Andrea Buonsenso & Panagiotis Daniilidis & Marco Centorbi & Mariano Intrieri & Alessandra di Cagno, 2021. "The Impact of Age, Gender and Technical Experience on Three Motor Coordination Skills in Children Practicing Taekwondo," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(11), pages 1-11, June.
    3. Martha Spanou & Nektarios Stavrou & Aspasia Dania & Fotini Venetsanou, 2022. "Children’s Involvement in Different Sport Types Differentiates Their Motor Competence but Not Their Executive Functions," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-11, May.
    4. Bin Li & Ruijie Li & Haiquan Qin & Tao Chen & Jingyu Sun, 2022. "Effects of Chinese Martial Arts on Motor Skills in Children between 5 and 6 Years of Age: A Randomized Controlled Trial," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-14, August.
    5. Livia Taverna & Marta Tremolada & Liliana Dozza & Renata Zanin Scaratti & Domahs Ulrike & Carlo Lallo & Barbara Tosetto, 2020. "Who Benefits from An Intervention Program on Foundational Skills for Handwriting Addressed to Kindergarten Children and First Graders?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(6), pages 1-24, March.

    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:sae:sagope:v:6:y:2016:i:1:p:2158244015626226. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.