Abstract
Purpose: To analyze associations between physical activity (PA) during school hours and fundamental movement skills (FMS) of young children with and without PE classes.
Methods: This cross-sectional study examined 201 children of both sexes (102 girls, 50.7 %), aged 3 to 5 years old (4.51 ± 0.79), who were engaged (n=129) or not (n=72) in physical education (PE) classes weekly. Light (LPA) and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) were assessed by accelerometer during school hours over five consecutive days, and FMS was assessed using the TGMD-2. To verify the association between PA (LPA and MVPA) and FMS (locomotor and object control scores) in both PE and NPE groups, multiple linear regression analysis was used.
Results: MVPA during school hours was significantly associated with object control performance in the PE group (β = .14 p = .025). A model with LPA and MVPA explained 4% of the object control performance variability.
Conclusion: The positive association observed between MVPA and object control skills on those preschoolers involved in PE classes highlight that opportunities in structured PE classes should be used as a central strategy to promote motor development in preschool settings.
Methods: This cross-sectional study examined 201 children of both sexes (102 girls, 50.7 %), aged 3 to 5 years old (4.51 ± 0.79), who were engaged (n=129) or not (n=72) in physical education (PE) classes weekly. Light (LPA) and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) were assessed by accelerometer during school hours over five consecutive days, and FMS was assessed using the TGMD-2. To verify the association between PA (LPA and MVPA) and FMS (locomotor and object control scores) in both PE and NPE groups, multiple linear regression analysis was used.
Results: MVPA during school hours was significantly associated with object control performance in the PE group (β = .14 p = .025). A model with LPA and MVPA explained 4% of the object control performance variability.
Conclusion: The positive association observed between MVPA and object control skills on those preschoolers involved in PE classes highlight that opportunities in structured PE classes should be used as a central strategy to promote motor development in preschool settings.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 302-314 |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| Journal | Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| Early online date | 13 Jun 2022 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 3 May 2024 |
Bibliographical note
This is an Accepted Manuscript version of the following article, accepted for publication in Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy. da Silva, R, Nobre, GC, Soares, I, Pessoa, ML, Bezerra, J, Reis Gaya, A, Mota, J, Duncan, M & Martins, C 2022, 'Physical activity during school-time and fundamental movement skills: a study among pre-schoolers with and without Physical Education classes', Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, vol. (In-Press), pp. (In-Press)..It is deposited under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Keywords
- Physical activity
- motor skills
- motor development
- preschool setting
- physical education
- preschoolers