Connection between Social Relationships and Basic Motor Competencies in Early Childhood.

Christian Herrmann,Ilaria Ferrari,Harald Seelig,Jürgen Kühnis,Roger Keller,Kathrin Bretz

doi:10.3390/children8010053

Abstract

In preschool, children build new contacts and social relationships with other people. They learn to cooperate with their peers and communicate in groups. In addition to social relationships, basic motor competencies (in German: Motorische Basiskompetenzen (MOBAK)) are also seen as a central developmental goal in early childhood and are necessary for participation in the culture of sports and movement. The aim of this paper is to describe the connection between social relationships and basic motor competencies in early childhood. In this present study, the motor competencies of N = 548 preschool children (51% girls, M = 68.0 months, SD = 6.8) were tested in the competence areas of self-movement and object movement. The children’s perceived social relationships were recorded from teacher and parent perspectives. The results clearly show a connection between social relationships and motor competencies in early childhood, with a stronger connection observed in boys. This finding is relevant both from a developmental and a health-oriented perspective, as it points to a link between physical and mental health, as well as technical and interdisciplinary competencies, in early childhood.

Highlights

Preschoolers are seen as being at an important stage for physical, mental, and social development
Developmental goals are defined for subject-specific competencies, e.g., physical education [5]
We considered the dependencies within the multilevel structure (0.03 ≤ interclass correlations (ICC) ≤ 0.23; Table 2) in all models by correcting the standard error with the “type = complex” function for nested datasets implemented in Mplus

Summary

Introduction

Preschoolers are seen as being at an important stage for physical, mental, and social development. In engaging with their environment, they constantly discover new connections, acquire new gross and fine motor skills, and build social relationships [1,2]. The development of motor competencies and social relationships with peers in early childhood is a core developmental task of this stage of life, whose mastery has a positive influence on children’s mental and physical health [3,4]. In addition to subject-specific competencies, interdisciplinary competencies (e.g., interpersonal relationship skills and emotion regulation) should be acquired in physical education [6]. Interdisciplinary competencies contribute to all health-related topics, such as well-being [7]

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Results