The effect of culture and genotype on motor development of parents and their children.

The study is based on the observation of 3995 individuals aged from 3 to over 80 years from five habitat types of Poland, ranging from agricultural villages to a large industrial city. We used a set of motor tests described elsewhere and examining the static and explosive muscular strength, agility, coordination and persistent fitness. The study objects were the generations of parents and their children (because of age-dependent differences, the traits of the latter were expressed in T-scores). Factor analysis with rotation Varimax was used to examine family traits. Four latent factors characterizing families were identified. Factor 1 (F1) was related with culture (consciousness). It explained 26% of the variance. F2 described living conditions and explained 22% of the variance. F3 (maternal-genetic) explained 12% of the variance, and factor 4 (father's genetic factor) explained 11% of the variance. These factors have a stronger effect on the motor traits of parents than on those of their children. The two generations were more similar with respect to such traits as the static strength, flexibility, spatial orientation and persistence. They were little similar with respect to explosive power and running agility. A moderate similarity occurred for throw accuracy and body balance. The most important factor in the parental generation is the consciousness (culture level) co-occurring with fitness (only for throw accuracy these were living conditions). The most important factors in the descendant generation were usually beyond the examined family traits. The present results show that in parallel to genetic and maternal factors also cultural factors related to traditional customs and social practices determine motor traits of children.