Sex differences in 3‐ to 5‐year‐old children's motor competence: A pooled cross‐sectional analysis of 6241 children
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: There is some, albeit inconsistent, evidence supporting sex differences in preschoolers' motor competence (MC), with these observations not uniform when analyzed by age, and cultural groups. Thus, this study examined sex differences across ages in 3- to 5-year-old children's MC. A cross-country pooled sample of 6241 children aged 3-5 years (49.6% girls) was assessed for MC using the Test of Gross Motor Development-2nd/3rd edition, and children were categorized into groups of age in months. Multiple linear regression models and predictive margins were calculated to explore how sex and age in months affect scores of MC (i.e., locomotor and ball skills), with adjustments for country and BMI. The Chow's Test was used to test for the presence of a structural break in the data. Significant differences in favor of girls were seen at 57-59 and 66-68 months of age for locomotor skills; boys performed better in ball skills in all age periods, except for 42-44 and 45-47 months of age. The higher marginal effects were observed for the period between 45-47 and 48-50 months for locomotor skills (F = 30.21; and F = 25.90 for girls and boys, respectively), and ball skills (F = 19.01; and F = 42.11 for girls and boys, respectively). A significantly positive break point was seen at 45-47 months, highlighting the age interval where children's MC drastically improved. The identification of this breakpoint provides an evidence-based metric for when we might expect MC to rapidly increase, and an indicator of early delay when change does not occur at that age.
DOI: 10.1111/sms.14651
Authors: Clarice Martins, Elizabeth K. Webster, Vicente Romo‐Perez, Michael Duncan, Luís Filipe Lemos, Amanda Staiano, Anthony Okely, Daniele Magistro, Fabio Carlevaro, Farid Bardid, Francesca Magno, Glauber Nobre, Isaac Estevan, Jorge Mota, Ke Ning, Leah E. Robinson, Matthieu Lenoir, Minghui Quan, Nadia Valentini, Parvaneh S. Dehkordi, Penny Cross, Rachel Jones, Rafael S. Henrique, Sedigheh Salami, Sitong Chen, Yucui Diao, Paulo R. Bandeira, Lisa M. Barnett
Institutions: Universidade Federal da Paraíba, Universidade do Porto, University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Universidade de Vigo, Coventry University, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, University of Wollongong, Nottingham Trent University, University of Strathclyde, University of Turin, Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Ceará, Universitat de València, Shaanxi Normal University, University of Michigan, Ghent University, Shanghai University of Sport, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Alzahra University, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Victoria University, Shandong Normal University, Universidade Regional do Cariri, Deakin University
Language: English
Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4397042386