Department of Women and Child Health, University Hospital for Children and Adolescents and Center for Pediatric Research, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Saxony, Germany.
LIFE Leipzig Research Center for Civilization Diseases, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Saxony, Germany.
PLoS One. 2021 May 17;16(5):e0251738. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0251738. eCollection 2021.
The present study describes motor skills in a large sample of German children and adolescents and investigates associations with age, gender, body-mass index, physical activity, television time, and socioeconomic status.
2,106 children (1076 boys, 1030 girls) aged 4 to 17 years performed five different motor tests for strength (pushups, standing long jump), coordination (backward balancing, jumping side-to-side) and flexibility (forward bend) within the framework of the LIFE Child study (Leipzig, Germany). Anthropometric parameters were assessed through standardized measurement. Data on physical activity, television time, and socioeconomic status were collected via questionnaires. Linear regression analyses were applied to assess relations.
Strength and coordination performance were higher in older than in younger children. While boys showed a higher performance in strengths tests than girls, girls performed better in flexibility and coordination during precision tasks (backward balancing). In terms of coordination under time constraint (jumping side-to-side), both genders produced similar results. Lower body-mass index, higher physical activity, and higher socioeconomic status were significantly related to better motor skills. Longer television times were significantly associated with lower performance in long jump.
The present findings are similar to data collected at the beginning of the century, indicating that motor skills have hardly changed in recent years. The findings furthermore suggest that children from lower social strata, children with higher body weight, and children who move little have a higher risk of developing insufficient motor skills and should therefore be given special support.
本研究描述了德国大量儿童和青少年的运动技能，并调查了其与年龄、性别、体重指数、身体活动、看电视时间和社会经济地位的关系。
在莱比锡儿童生活研究（LIFE Child study）框架内，2106 名 4 至 17 岁的儿童（1076 名男孩，1030 名女孩）进行了五项不同的运动测试，包括力量（俯卧撑、立定跳远）、协调（后平衡、侧向跳跃）和柔韧性（前屈）。通过标准化测量评估了人体测量参数。通过问卷收集了身体活动、看电视时间和社会经济地位的数据。线性回归分析用于评估关系。
力量和协调表现随着年龄的增长而提高。男孩在力量测试中的表现优于女孩，而女孩在灵活性和协调任务（后平衡）中表现更好。在时间限制下的协调（侧向跳跃）方面，男女表现相似。较低的体重指数、较高的身体活动和较高的社会经济地位与较好的运动技能显著相关。较长的看电视时间与跳远成绩下降显著相关。
本研究结果与本世纪初收集的数据相似，表明近年来运动技能几乎没有变化。此外，研究结果表明，来自社会经济地位较低阶层的儿童、体重较高的儿童和运动较少的儿童发展出运动技能不足的风险更高，因此应给予特别支持。
