Salami Sedigheh, Bandeira Paulo Felipe Ribeiro, Mashhadi Maryam Rahymian, Shamsipour Dehkordi Parvaneh, Luz Leonardo G O, Martins Clarice Maria de Lucena, Hardy Louise L, Duncan Michael J
Department of Motor Behavior, Faculty of Sport Sciences, Alzahra University, Tehran 15847-15414, Iran.
GEAPAM-Department of Physical Education, Regional University of Cariri, Crato 63105-010, Brazil.
Children (Basel). 2024 Sep 20;11(9):1143. doi: 10.3390/children11091143.
The development of motor competence (MC) during childhood is crucial for future physical activity and health outcomes, and it is affected by both biological and psychosocial factors. Most MC research has focused on children's age, with fewer studies examining separate associations between MC and biological maturation.
This cross-sectional study used network analysis to assess the nonlinear associations between biological maturation (the child's percentage of predicted mature stature to indicate somatic maturation), chronological age, sex, BMI, and MC (Test of Gross Motor Development, third edition) in 218 children (100 boys, 118 girls) aged 7-9 years.
Biological maturation was not significantly associated with MC in boys and weakly associated with MC in girls for the dribble, under-hand throw, and gallop. Age was positively associated with MC in girls and boys. Centrality measures indicated that the gallop and slide in girls and the dribble, catch, and run in boys were the most important network variables. Positive associations were observed between maturation and BMI for girls (r = 0.579) and, to a lesser degree, for boys (r = 0.267).
The findings suggest that age, rather than biological maturation, is positively associated with MC in 7- to 9-year-olds. Centrality measures showed that some skills may influence other skills.
儿童期运动能力（MC）的发展对未来的身体活动和健康状况至关重要，并且受到生物和心理社会因素的影响。大多数MC研究都集中在儿童的年龄上，较少有研究考察MC与生物成熟度之间的单独关联。
这项横断面研究使用网络分析来评估218名7至9岁儿童（100名男孩，118名女孩）的生物成熟度（用预测成熟身高的百分比来表示身体成熟度）、实足年龄、性别、体重指数（BMI）和MC（《粗大运动发展测试》第三版）之间的非线性关联。
对于男孩，生物成熟度与MC无显著关联；对于女孩，生物成熟度与运球、下手投掷和奔跑的MC呈弱关联。年龄与男孩和女孩的MC均呈正相关。中心性测量表明，女孩的奔跑和滑动以及男孩的运球、接球和奔跑是最重要的网络变量。女孩的成熟度与BMI之间呈正相关（r = 0.579），男孩的相关性较弱（r = 0.267）。
研究结果表明，在7至9岁儿童中，与MC呈正相关的是年龄，而非生物成熟度。中心性测量表明，一些技能可能会影响其他技能。
