Relationships among motor skill, perceived self-competence, fitness, and physical activity in young adults

Sarah Carson Sackett; Elizabeth Skidmore Edwards

doi:10.1016/j.humov.2019.04.015

Relationships among motor skill, perceived self-competence, fitness, and physical activity in young adults

Hum Mov Sci. 2019 Aug:66:209-219. doi: 10.1016/j.humov.2019.04.015. Epub 2019 May 6.

Authors

Sarah Carson Sackett¹, Elizabeth Skidmore Edwards²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Kinesiology, Morrison Bruce Center, James Madison University, 261 Bluestone Dr., MSC 2302, Harrisonburg, VA 22807, USA. Electronic address: carsonsa@jmu.edu.
² Department of Kinesiology, Morrison Bruce Center, James Madison University, 261 Bluestone Dr., MSC 2302, Harrisonburg, VA 22807, USA. Electronic address: edwardes@jmu.edu.

PMID: 31071613
DOI: 10.1016/j.humov.2019.04.015

Abstract

Purpose: This large-scale, exploratory study sought to examine the associations between motor skill proficiency (MSP), perceived self-competence (PC), physical fitness (PF), and self-reported physical activity (PA) to assess the assumption that relationships among these variables found in childhood and adolescence persist into young-adulthood. Specifically, predictors of PF and PA were assessed. Additionally, the contributions body mass index (BMI) and gender made to these relationships, as well as that of process- versus product-oriented motor skills data, were studied. Finally, how these relationships differed by gender was explored.

Methods: Participants' (n = 448) MSP was assessed using select measures from the TGMD-2 and the BOT-2, while PF was evaluated using the FitnessGram. Participants also completed surveys to assess PC (SPPCS), PA (past-week MAQ), and demographic information. Height and weight were collected to calculate BMI.

Results: Models predicting physical fitness had good fit to the observed data, with perceived athletic competence, locomotor skill, upper-limb coordination, BMI, and gender accounting for about 75% (R² = 0.748) of aerobic PF variance and about 48% (R² = 0.476) of variance in push-up performances. About 18% (R² = 0.178) of variance in curl-up performances was predicted by perceived athletic competence, locomotor skill, upper-limb coordination, and PA. The PA model demonstrated weaker predictive power, with only about 10% (R² = 0.097) of variance explained. When considering male and female models separately, female models demonstrated better fit when predicting all PF and PA outcome variables. BMI and gender operated as significant predictors to differing degrees across the various models.

Conclusions: There is compelling evidence to believe relationships found among MSP, PC, PF, and PA in childhood and adolescence also exist in early adulthood. However, differences in the roles of gender and physical fitness versus physical activity are likely to exist.

Keywords: College-aged; Fundamental motor skill; Gender differences; Perceived self-competence; Physical fitness.