| The increasing ratio of fat and obese individuals became characteristical in the economically developed countries during the past decades. The marked changes can be observed both in growing and adult populations (142).;The aim of the study was to compare the human biological characteristics and motor performance scores of fat and obese 10--13-year-old boys, belonging to definitely different anthropological races, living in various geographic regions but very similar socio-economic conditions.;Volunteer Hungarian, Cypriot, and Malaysian children (N = 1195) took part in the investigation, and following the suggestions of Lohman (73) they were grouped into two fat categories (F% = 25.00--29,99 fat and F% ≥ 30.00 obese).;The anthropometric techniques used for the description of physique and body composition are accepted by the international literature. For the estimation of growth type the Conrad (21) method was used. Somatotype components were determined by the suggestions of Carter and Heath (19), and the relative body fat content was assessed by the calliper-metric technique, described by Parizkovd (104). Physical performance capacity was estimated by the scores of 30 m dash, standing long jump, fist ball throw and 1200 m run.;The fat and obese children were significantly taller than their non-fat counterparts in all three nations and four age groups. Nevertheless their taller stature can be attributed to the more or less advanced biological development, which has ranged within the physiological range. The difference of means in the case of fat boys is not consistent but at least reveals the anthropometrical differences among the different populations. The morphological and constitutional differences can not be proven between the different human-races among obese age groups. The extremely picnomorfic but on height and plastic index based robust constitution is a general characteristic of the Hungarian, Cypriot and Malay measurement. The motor performance of fat and obese sample is very weak. There is a real difference among the identical age and anthro-pometricly similar origin based classification between the means of fat and obese sample. Among the same categories the performance of the Hungarian sample is the best followed by the Cypriot and by the weakest Malay sample.;Based on the results of the Cluster analysis of fat and obese 10--13 year old boys the national distribution of the cases more and less was different, but the distributional differences were not consistent. The experienced frequency in Cluster 2, that represented the given age groups the best, was smaller than in Cluster 1 and Cluster 3. The multivariate judgment that differs from the original classification allows the creation of a general classificatory and orientational methodology that is missing from known and existing daily practices. |
