Relationships of physical activity and somatic characteristics with physical fitness and motor skill in prepubertal girls

✍ Scribed by Lennart Raudsepp; Toivo Jürimäe

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 45 KB
• Volume: 9
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1042-0533
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1520-6300(1997)9:4<513::aid-ajhb11>3.0.co;2-p

✦ Synopsis

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between physical activity and somatic growth with motor skill and physical fitness in prepubertal girls. The subjects were 215, 7-10-year-old girls. Somatic characteristics included 15 dimensions. Physical fitness was assessed by the EUROFIT battery of 9 tests. Motor skill development was based on quantitative and qualitative assessment of the overhand throw. Physical activity was assessed by parental seven-day physical activity recall for the child. Sum of five skinfolds was significantly negatively related with motor fitness after controlling for the effects of physical activity (r = -0.27 to -0.39). Somatic characteristics were not significantly related with fitness items and throwing stage after controlling for physical activity. Age-specific partial correlations between physical activity, fitness items, quantitative, and qualitative characteristics of the overhand throw, were not significant. After controlling for body size and subcutaneous fatness, aerobic fitness was significantly related with physical activity of moderate to high intensity. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:513-521, 1997. © 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.