Abstract
BackgroundPerceived school self-efficacy (SE) is an important variable in students’ activities as it affects their motivation and learning. Further, self-efficacy might represent a good predictor of performance, persistence and perseverance. Motor skills and other physical health determinants are extensively debated and linked to cognitive function in children of developmental age. However, inconclusive evidence supports a definitive relationship between perceived school SE and motor skills among schoolchildren. We conducted a cross-sectional study on 6–11-year-old schoolchildren to evaluate the extent by which perceived school SE and physical health determinants were related.MethodsA SE questionnaire and motor performance battery tests were administered to primary school pupils recruited from 154 sampled schools of northwest Italy. Perceived SE at school was assessed via 12 items from the Caprara’s questionnaire. Motor performance scores were obtained from motor skill tests: 4 × 10 m shuttle run test, SRT; standing broad jump, SBJ; six-minute walking test, 6MWT.ResultsA total of 3,962 children (M = 2,019; F = 1943) were studied and 68% were normal weight. Overall, a 58% of the sample perceived a high SE, while, as to gender differences, a greater percentage of females perceived high levels of school SE with respect to any other level (χ2 = 38.93, p < 0.0001). Results from multinomial logistic regression analysis revealed that: (i) females perceived higher SE compared to males; (ii) children who performed better in SRT and 6MWT showed higher levels of perceived school SE; (iii) no significant effect was registered for the body weight. Alternative strategies are encouraged to enhance SE through physical education: structured interventions might enhance both complex motor skills and high-order cognitive skills, like SE, in young children.
Highlights
Current developments in the fields of behavioral psychology and neurobiology reflect different perspectives about the relationship between motor skills and cognitive skills in prepubertal pupils
Motor performance scores were obtained from motor skill tests: 4 × 10 m shuttle run test, SRT; standing broad jump, SBJ; six-minute walking test, 6MWT
In the Italian questionnaire of perceived school SE (Caprara, 2001), several metacognitive skills are envisaged: planning, that is, when a plan is structured as a hierarchy of sub goals, each requiring actions to master a difficulty and fulfill a task; attention, meant as the ability to discern what it is relevant among numerous cognitive interferences; working memory, which corresponds to the ability of storing and/or handling information over a period of seconds to minutes
Summary
Current developments in the fields of behavioral psychology and neurobiology reflect different perspectives about the relationship between motor skills and cognitive skills in prepubertal pupils. Other physical health indicators, such as BMI and weight gain, require attention as they may be reciprocally influenced by physical fitness and school self-efficacy (SE) during growth. Self-efficacy plays a decisive role on human behavior in every age group and gender by affecting manifold personal dimensions such as goal setting, aspirations, focus, expectations, and the perception of obstacles or opportunities in the surrounding social (or school) environment. In this regard, perceived SE reflects the level of difficulty students believe they could overcome. Results from multinomial logistic regression analysis revealed that: (i) females perceived higher SE compared to males; (ii) children who performed better in SRT and 6MWT showed higher levels of
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