Current evidence on the associations between motor competence and aspects of health in youth: What do we know?

Publication date: October 2014 Source:Science & Sports, Volume 29, Supplement Author(s): D. Stodden Introduction Developing and sustaining health-enhancing behaviors and outcomes in youth inherently involves the integration of many behavioral, psychological, social and environmental factors. Examining how these factors evolve across childhood and adolescence and how they may synergistically interact to promote either positive or negative trajectories of physical and psychological development has largely been unexplored. In 2008, Stodden et al. [1] suggested that previous research had failed to consider the role that motor competence (MC) plays in the initiation, maintenance, or decline of physical activity (PA), health-related physical fitness (HRPF) and how these factors may synergistically impact to weight status in youth. Using a unique developmental approach, a conceptual model was proposed that addresses the potential role that MC may have on promoting either positive or negative trajectories of PA, HRPF, perceived competence and weight status. Current knowledge Prior to 2008, limited research had examined associations between MC and the aforementioned health-related variables. However, emerging cross-sectional, longitudinal and experimental data in children, adolescents and young adults indicate there is strong evidence for positive associations between MC and PA, cardiorespiratory fitness and musculoskeletal fitness. Data also confirm there is an inverse...
Source: Science and Sports - Category: Sports Medicine Source Type: research