Earlier acquisition of fundamental movement skills promotes adolescent physical activity in Japanese elementary school children: a 4-year follow-up study

Abstract

Introduction: Although previous studies have reported that physical fitness, such as skill-related fitness and motor fitness, during early childhood is moderately related to adolescent physical activity, physical activity was not objectively evaluated with an accelerometer, and various components of physical fitness, such as endurance capacity, motor fitness and fundamental movement skills, were not measured at the same time. In addition, it remains unclear whether research findings from other countries are applicable to Japanese children, because physical fitness and physical activity during early childhood depend on the educational environment, according to school policies and curricula. This longitudinal study investigated the kinds of fitness during early childhood that contribute to adolescent physical activity in Japanese elementary school children.