Does playing a sports active video game improve young children's ball skill competence?

Abstract

Background: Actual and perceived object control (commonly ball) skill proficiency is associated with higher physical activity in children and adolescents. Active video games (AVGs) encourage body movement to control/play the electronic gaming system and therefore provide an opportunity for screen time to become more active. No other study has assessed whether ‘playing’ video games on the X-Box Kinect improves ball skills. The purpose was to determine whether playing sports AVGs has a positive influence on young children's actual and perceived ball skills.Methods: This study used a two group pre/post experimental design. Thirty-six children aged 6–10 years old from one school were randomly allocated, resulting in 19 intervention children (53% boys; mean age 7.9 years, SD 1.5) and 17 control children (53% boys; mean age 8.0 years, SD 1.2). The Test of Gross Motor Development-3 assessed object control skill. The Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence for Young Children assessed perceived object control skill. The intervention consisted of six 50-min lunchtime AVG sessions on the Xbox Kinect. Two to three sport games were chosen for participants to play each session. General linear models with either perceived object control or actual object control skill as the outcome variables were conducted. Model 1 adjusted for intervention status and pre-score of the respective outcome variable. Additional models adjusted for potential confounding variables (sex of child and game at home). Child age was initially adjusted for but removed due to lack of significance.Results: There were no significant differences between control and intervention children for any demographic variables and for actual or perceived skill at baseline. All children were retained at post. There were no significant differences between the control and intervention groups in perceived object control skill competency (Model 1, intervention status (control) B = 0.347, Model 2 – adjusted for sex, B = −1.396, Model 3 – adjusted for game at home, B = 1.623, p > 0.05 in each). Similarly, there was no significant difference between the control and intervention groups for object control skill competency (Model 1: B = 0.671, Model 2: B = 1.345, Model 3: B = 0.696, p > 0.05 in each).Discussion: This study found that playing the Xbox Kinect does not significantly influence children's perceived or actual object control skills, suggesting that the utility of the Xbox Kinect for developing perceived and actual object control skill competence is questionable. Background: Actual and perceived object control (commonly ball) skill proficiency is associated with higher physical activity in children and adolescents. Active video games (AVGs) encourage body movement to control/play the electronic gaming system and therefore provide an opportunity for screen time to become more active. No other study has assessed whether ‘playing’ video games on the X-Box Kinect improves ball skills. The purpose was to determine whether playing sports AVGs has a positive influence on young children's actual and perceived ball skills. Methods: This study used a two group pre/post experimental design. Thirty-six children aged 6–10 years old from one school were randomly allocated, resulting in 19 intervention children (53% boys; mean age 7.9 years, SD 1.5) and 17 control children (53% boys; mean age 8.0 years, SD 1.2). The Test of Gross Motor Development-3 assessed object control skill. The Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence for Young Children assessed perceived object control skill. The intervention consisted of six 50-min lunchtime AVG sessions on the Xbox Kinect. Two to three sport games were chosen for participants to play each session. General linear models with either perceived object control or actual object control skill as the outcome variables were conducted. Model 1 adjusted for intervention status and pre-score of the respective outcome variable. Additional models adjusted for potential confounding variables (sex of child and game at home). Child age was initially adjusted for but removed due to lack of significance. Results: There were no significant differences between control and intervention children for any demographic variables and for actual or perceived skill at baseline. All children were retained at post. There were no significant differences between the control and intervention groups in perceived object control skill competency (Model 1, intervention status (control) B = 0.347, Model 2 – adjusted for sex, B = −1.396, Model 3 – adjusted for game at home, B = 1.623, p > 0.05 in each). Similarly, there was no significant difference between the control and intervention groups for object control skill competency (Model 1: B = 0.671, Model 2: B = 1.345, Model 3: B = 0.696, p > 0.05 in each). Discussion: This study found that playing the Xbox Kinect does not significantly influence children's perceived or actual object control skills, suggesting that the utility of the Xbox Kinect for developing perceived and actual object control skill competence is questionable.