Abstract
The purposes of the study were: (1) to investigate the associations between fundamental motor skills (FMS), health-related fitness (HRF) and physical activity (PA) during middle childhood; and (2) to examine whether HRF serves as a mediator in these pathways. The participants were 342 children (156 girls; Mage = 8.40, SD = 0.50) recruited in Texas. Children’s FMS (locomotor and ball skills) were assessed. School-based PA that included light, moderate, and vigorous PA was captured by accelerometers. The FITNESSGRAM battery was used to measure children’s HRF, including body composition, cardiorespiratory fitness, and muscular fitness. Structural equation models were used to evaluate two proposed models (model-1 = FMS»HRF»PA; model-2 = PA»HRF»FMS). Both locomotor and ball skills were associated with all components of HRF (p < 0.01), but not PA. The SEM analyses supported associations between FMS, HRF and PA, with sound goodness-of-fit indices: (1) model-1: CFI = 0.95; RMSEA = 0.072; and (2) model-2: CFI = 0.95; RMSEA = 0.071, respectively. The relationship between FMS and PA was fully mediated by the HRF in both directions. The behavioral mechanism (e.g., maintaining appropriate levels of HRF) provides meaningful insights to understand the obesity trajectory during middle childhood.
Highlights
multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) indicated that boys participated in more MVPA than girls (p < 0.001; η2 = 0.06), and there were no significant age and ethnic effects on the study variables
The findings of this study show that fundamental motor skills (FMS) is central to the understanding of physical activity (PA) and obesity in middle childhood, which indicates that the relationship between FMS and PA is not direct but mediated by health-related fitness (HRF)
FMS and PA is not direct, but mediated by HRF among third grade children. These findings suggest that maintaining appropriate levels of HRF may benefit skill acquisition and promote PA in middle childhood
Summary
It was well-documented that physical activity (PA) contributes to overall health and prevents childhood obesity, more than 70% of the children aged 6–11 years in the United States do not meet the recommended levels of PA, and less than half of the youth achieve adequate fundamental motor skills (FMS) and health-related fitness (HRF). A proficient level of fundamental motor skills is required for performance in a variety of daily physical activities. A review of research indicated that physical inactivity and insufficient FMS competence contribute to the trajectory of obesity in early, middle and later childhood [5,6,7]. Habitual physical inactivity and low HRF trajectories are more likely to cluster together with the obesity epidemic, the underlying behavioral mechanism is not clear in the current literature, especially during childhood [8]
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