Gender Differences on Motor Competence in 5-Year-Old Preschool Children Regarding Relative Age

Rubén Navarro-Patón, Joaquín Lago-Ballesteros, Víctor Arufe-Giráldez, Alberto Sanmiguel-Rodríguez, Carlos Lago-Fuentes and Marcos Mecías-Calvo
Additional contact information
Rubén Navarro-Patón: Facultad de Formación del Profesorado, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 27001 Lugo, Spain
Joaquín Lago-Ballesteros: Facultad de Formación del Profesorado, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 27001 Lugo, Spain
Víctor Arufe-Giráldez: Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación, Universidad de A Coruña, 15008 A Coruña, Spain
Alberto Sanmiguel-Rodríguez: Facultad de Lenguas y Educación, Universidad Camilo José Cela, 28692 Madrid, Spain
Carlos Lago-Fuentes: Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Europea del Atlántico, 39011 Santander, Spain
Marcos Mecías-Calvo: Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Europea del Atlántico, 39011 Santander, Spain

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 6, 1-10

Abstract: The aim of this study was to evaluate the differences on motor competence between 5-year-old boys and girls and to investigate the existence of Relative Age Effect (RAE) on their motor competence. A total of 232 preschool children were evaluated of whom 134 (57.8%) were boys and 98 (42.2%) were girls. The Movement Assessment Battery for Children-2 (MABC-2) was used to collect data. The data show a main effect on gender factor; there was a main effect in total score of manual dexterity (MD; p = 0.010), in total score of balance (Bal; p < 0.001), in total test score (TTS; p < 0.001), and in total percentile score (TPS, p < 0.001). In the semester of birth factor, there were differences in aiming and catching (A&C, p < 0.001), in Bal ( p = 0.029) and in total percentile score (TPS, p = 0.010). Girls perform better in MD, Bal, TTS, and TPS than boys. Preschool children born in the first semester obtain, in general, a higher percentage and a higher percentile than their peers born in the second one. RAE is present in A&C, Bal, and TPS, with higher scores obtained by preschool children born in the first semester compared to those born in the second one.

Keywords: relative age effect; childhood; motor competence; manual dexterity; aiming and catching; balance; movement assessment battery for children-2 (MABC-2) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/6/3143/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/6/3143/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:6:p:3143-:d:519703

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().