The relationship between motor proficiency and body composition in children aged 4--6 years

Childhood obesity is a serious national health issue. There are many contributing factors in the development of obesity including the following: nutritional habits, environmental circumstances, genetics, socioeconomic status, motor proficiency, and the frequency, duration, and intensity of participation in physical activity. Two of these factors that have not received sufficient empirical investigation in the preschool population are motor proficiency and physical activity.;In order to address this knowledge gap, three separate studies were conducted for this thesis project. First, thirty-five children aged 4-6 years had the Movement Assessment Battery for Children--2 (MABC) and Body Mass Index measured and correlated. BMI groups were defined by the following range of percentile rankings: low BMI = 1st--25th, medium BMI = 26th--74th, high BMI = 75th--99th. No significant relationship was found between MABC and BMI percentile ranks (r = -.24). When subjects were grouped into high, medium, and low body composition, significant differences in MABC percentile existed between high and low (p = .025), and high and medium (p = .035) groups. These results suggest that children classified as overweight or obese display significantly lower motor proficiency than their peers with medium and low BMIs. In additional analyses, participants were also grouped according to motor proficiency determined by MABC percentile rankings (MPlow: 1st--30th, MPmed: 31st--69th, and MPhigh: 70th--99th). Significant differences existed in mean BMI percentile rankings between the MPlow and MPhigh (p = .016) and the MPlow and MPmed (p < .001) groups. Both results indicate a significantly higher BMI percentile ranking for the low motor proficient group compared to the medium and high motor proficient groups. This study indicates there is a direct relationship between motor proficiency and body composition in the preschool population.;The second part of this thesis involved testing seventeen children aged 4--6 years on the object control subset of the Test of Gross Motor Development -2 (TGMD). The purpose was to determine if a relationship exists between BMI and object control skills in a sample of preschool children. The Pearson correlation was non--significant between BMI percentile and object control percentile (r actual < .01). This suggests no relationship exists between BMI and object control skills in this group of preschool children.;The third part of this thesis involved eight children (5.0 +/- .55 years) whom participated in a one-hour physical education class and wore an accelerometer to measure physical activity levels. The purpose of this study was to examine the associations between BMI percentiles, MABC percentiles, and physical activity. Spearman's rank correlations (r > .5) based on the rankings of BMI percentiles include the following: (activity counts, r = .86, r2 = .74; percent time in light, r = --.69, r2 = .48, and percent time in vigorous, r = .71, r2 = .50). Correlations based on the rankings of MABC percentiles include the following: (activity counts, r = .59, r2 = .35; percent time in sedentary, r = --.67, r2 = .45; percent time in light, r = --.71, r2 = .50, and percent time in moderate, r = .85, r2 = .72). These results suggest body composition and motor proficiency are correlated with different intensities of physical activity.