Authors
Eline Coppens, Farid Bardid, An De Meester, Frederik Deconinck, Kristine De Martelaer, Leen Haerens, Matthieu Lenoir, Eva D'Hondt
Publication date
2021
Conference
Fifth assembly of the International Motor Development Research Consortium: Moving Across the Life Course: Research & Practice
Description
This study aimed to (1) investigate differences in actual motor competence (AMC) and cardiorespiratory fitness among children who are (not) involved in organized sports, and (2) examine to what extent different aspects of organized sports participation (OSP) (i.e., single-sports versus multi-sports, average weekly amount of OSP, type and number of sports being practiced across childhood) influences AMC, cardiorespiratory fitness, perceived motor competence (PMC) and autonomous motivation toward sports. Participants’ (N = 346; 172 boys; 9.77 ± 1.04 years) AMC, cardiorespiratory fitness, PMC, autonomous motivation and OSP were measured using validated assessment tools. A two-way MANCOVA was used to examine differences in AMC and cardiorespiratory fitness between children not involved in organized sports (n = 81) and the sporting subsample (n = 265) according to sex, while controlling for age. The sporting subsample outperformed the children not involved in organized sports regarding AMC and cardiorespiratory fitness (p < 0.001). No sex differences in AMC were found (p = 0.129), whereas boys demonstrated better cardiorespiratory fitness than girls (p < 0.001). Within the sporting subsample, four separate hierarchical multiple regression models—including age and sex as covariates—were conducted to examine to what extent different aspects of OSP influence the four different outcomes mentioned above. With respect to AMC, only type of sports (i.e., locomotor-oriented vs. object control-oriented) was an important aspect of OSP (p < 0.001), and uniquely explained 8.5% of the variation in AMC. A predominant involvement in …
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