Body Composition Index Predict Children'S Motor Skills Proficiency

Abstract

Failure in mastery of motor skills proficiency during<br> childhood has been seen as a detrimental factor for children to be<br> physically active. Lack of motor skills proficiency tends to reduce<br> children’s competency and confidence level to participate in physical<br> activity. As a consequence of less participation in physical activity,<br> children will turn to be overweight and obese. It has been suggested<br> that children who master motor skill proficiency will be more<br> involved in physical activity thus preventing them from being<br> overweight. Obesity has become a serious childhood health issues<br> worldwide. Previous studies have found that children who were<br> overweight and obese were generally less active however these<br> studies focused on one gender. This study aims to compare motor<br> skill proficiency of underweight, normal-weight, overweight and<br> obese young boys as well as to determine the relationship between<br> motor skills proficiency and body composition. 112 boys aged<br> between 8 to 10 years old participated in this study. Participants were<br> assigned to four groups; underweight, normal-weight, overweight and<br> obese using BMI-age percentile chart for children. Bruininks-<br> Oseretsky Test Second Edition-Short Form was administered to<br> assess their motor skill proficiency. Meanwhile, body composition<br> was determined by the skinfold thickness measurement. Result<br> indicated that underweight and normal children were superior in<br> motor skills proficiency compared to overweight and obese children<br> (p &lt; 0.05). A significant strong inverse correlation between motor<br> skills proficiency and body composition (r = -0.849) is noted. The<br> findings of this study could be explained by non-contributory mass<br> that carried by overweight and obese children leads to biomechanical<br> movement inefficiency which will become detrimental to motor skills<br> proficiency. It can be concluded that motor skills proficiency is<br> inversely correlated with body composition.