Investigating the construct of motor competence in middle childhood using the BOT‐2 Short Form : an item response theory perspective

Purpose: Motor assessments generally produce a single motor competence score based on the general motor ability hypothesis, which states that motor competence is a one-dimensional trait underlying a wide range of motor skills. Yet, it is unclear whether the general motor ability hypothesis holds true in middle childhood, which is marked by an increased participation in sports and other types of physical activity. Therefore, the aim of the study was to evaluate the structure of motor competence in middle childhood using a test battery with a large item set. Method: A cross-sectional design was used to collect motor competence data of 2538 children aged 6-11 years. Participants completed the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency—2nd Edition Short Form (BOT-2 SF), which consists of 14 skill items and covers different motor domains. In accordance with the BOT-2 SF manual, point scores were computed for each item. Polytomous Rasch analyses (ie, general partial credit model) were carried out to investigate the construct of motor competence. Results: Rasch analyses revealed different items with unordered threshold parameters, due to ceiling effects. However, after empirically rescaling the category width for each item, follow-up analyses revealed a one-dimensional structure with 12 items. Conclusion: The study provides some evidence of a one-dimensional construct (ie, motor competence) underlying motor assessment in middle childhood. Continued efforts should be made to ensure that valid composite scores are used in motor assessment and to better understand the development of motor competence across childhood and into adolescence and adulthood

LINKING PHYSICAL EDUCATION WITH LOCAL SPORT ORGANIZATIONS: IMPLEMENTATION OF AN “ACTIVE SCHOOL COMMUNITY”

The main purpose of the active school communities project was to act as a starting point for more active school communities throughout seven countries across Europe by strengthening the links between community sport organizations and local schools and provide a low-cost solution to improve physical education and physical activity in schools. Further, opportunities for cooperation were fostered by creating new partnerships between stakeholders that already separately work at the community level to encourage children to move more. Therefore, toolkits were created by the active school communities ERASMUS+ project to promote collaborations between the field of education together with grassroots sport sectors and sport clubs. The aim of this study was a pilot evaluation of these toolkits. A total of 38 members of local sport organizations, 34 members of local schools and 5 national coordinators participated in three parts of the evaluation study. In sum, there are ambivalent results regarding the three toolkits, but the majority of participants supported the aim of the project to create and improve more active school communities. Finally, future recommendations are discussed.  Article visualizations

Understanding the interplay between text quality, writing self-efficacy and writing anxiety in learners with and without migration background

Writing presents considerable challenges to students’ motivation. Yet there is a dearth of studies assessing the role of affect and motivation in writing performance for students with migration backgrounds (MB), who often underachieve in writing. Our study addressed this research gap by investigating the interplay between writing self-efficacy, writing anxiety, and text quality in 208 secondary students with and without MB using Response Surface Analyses. The data showed comparable levels of self-efficacy and, notably, lower writing anxiety levels among students with MB despite lower writing achievements. In the full sample, we observed positive correlations between self-efficacy and text quality and negative correlations between writing anxiety and text quality. When modeling efficacy and anxiety measures and their interplay to predict text quality, self-efficacy measures continued to account for statistically detectable unique variance in text quality, whereas writing anxiety did not. However, students with MB demonstrated differing interplay patterns, with less efficacious students with MB showing positive relations between writing anxiety and text quality

Construct validity of the English version of the perceived motor competence questionnaire in childhood (PMC-C)

Objectives: Perceived motor competence is an important part of the physical self-concept. Whilst there are various questionnaires measuring physical self-concept and its sub-components in children and adolescents, few have focused on assessing self-perception of motor skills. To this end, the Perceived Motor Competence Questionnaire in Childhood (PMC-C; Dreiskaemper, Utesch & Tietjens, 2018) was developed to measure children’s perception of different locomotor and object control skills; the instrument has been validated in German. The present study aimed to investigate the construct validity of the English version of the questionnaire.Methods: A total of 324 children aged 8-12 years (M = 10.17, SD = 1.16) from Scotland (UK) took part in the study and completed the 24-item questionnaire, which uses a 4-point Likert scale. The PMC-C covers 4 locomotor skills (hop, jump run, and skip) and 4 object control skills (bounce, catch, kick, and throw) with 3 items per skill. Internal consistency was examined using polychoric alphas or omegas. The latent structure of the original PMC-C was tested using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).Results: The results showed good internal consistency for locomotor skills (.78 – .88) and object control skills (.73 – .89), and ordered thresholds for all items. Furthermore, the CFA revealed a good model fit for the assumed structure of the original PMC-C (χ2(243) = 501.1, p < .001, TLI = .985, CFI = .987, RMSEA = .061).Conclusion: The study provides evidence for the construct validity of the English version of the PMC-C. This questionnaire is thus considered an appropriate tool to assess children’s self-perception of motor skills

differences in motor competence and cardiorespiratory fitness

The purpose was to identify classes of different developmental trajectories of BMI and testing them for differences in motor competence (MC) and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), in children and adolescents (4 to 13 years of age). This was a 5 years? longitudinal study with six cohorts. One hundred and forty-seven children (69 girls) divided into six cohorts participated. At baseline, the youngest and the oldest cohorts had 4 and 11 years of age, respectively. Height and weight were assessed, and BMI was calculated. MC was assessed with KTK and TGMD-2, and CRF was assessed with one-mile run/walk. Developmental trajectories of BMI were identified using latent class linear-mixed modelling. Latent class membership was explained according to covariates of MC and CRF. Two meaningful classes were identified. Class 1 (78.92% of the participants) showed lower initial BMI and a lower slope compared to class 2 (21.08% of the participants) (all ps < 0.001). Class membership only predicted trajectories in motor coordination, with children in class 1 having a better development. In conclusion, this study identified two meaningful trajectories for children based on their BMI development across five time points. In line with previous research, children with slower increasing BMI showed better motor coordination improvements.4811-99FE-2ECD | Luis Paulo RodriguesN/

Developmental perspectives on motor competence and physical fitness in youth

The aim of this special issue in Scandinavian Journal of Science & Medicine in Sports was to provide an update of research examining motor competence and physical fitness in childhood and adolescence from a longitudinal perspective. Motor competence and physical fitness play an important role in children and adolescents' overall health and growth. Motor competence refers to an individual's degree of proficiency in performing various motor skills and is underpinned by coordination and control. Developing adequate levels of competence in fundamental motor/movement skills is critical for all children as they form the foundation for more complex skills used in games, sports and other types of physical activities across the lifespan. Physical fitness refers to an individual's capacity to perform physical activity and includes components such as cardiorespiratory fitness, musculoskeletal fitness (i.e., muscular endurance and strength), and flexibility. Motor competence and physical fitness are correlated in young people

Using Rasch modeling to investigate the construct of motor competence in early childhood

Purpose: The present study investigated the dimensionality and homogeneity of motor competence, which is defined as the ability that underlies the performance of a wide variety of motor skills, in early childhood using a large set of items. Method: A total of 1467 children (aged 3-6 years) were measured with the Motor Proficiency Test for 4- to 6-Year-old Children (Motoriktest für vier-bis sechsjährige Kinder [MOT 4-6]), which consists of 17 items. Results: Analyses using the Partial Credit Model and mixed Rasch model revealed a one-dimensional structure (CR = 1.964, pCR = .06; P-χ2 = -.227, pp-χ2=.24). Due to unordered threshold parameters, five items were excluded. These items have a scoring system that counts the amount of successful trials (0-2). Conclusion: The study shows item and person homogeneity within a validated motor score, using 12 items of the MOT 4-6. Thus, it provides evidence of a single latent construct (i.e., motor competence), which underlies the performance of motor skills in early childhood. Furthermore, it shows that counting the number of successful trails may be less suitable as a scoring system in motor competence assessment. Present findings also support the use of validated composite scores in motor assessment

Wege aus der Vertrauenskrise

Psychology faces a so-called crisis of confidence as does sport psychology (see title of this special issue). While the debate on its causes and consequences is lively, the deduction of individual opportunities to collectively increase trust is missing. We propose ways out of this crisis and above all describe individual steps toward a reliable and open science. Reliable science refers to the publication of robust effects, as well as to direct and conceptual replications, and open science refers to transparency regarding the design (preregistration), the conducting (open material), and the analysis (open data, reproducible code) of scientific studies. The commitment to reliable and open science will change our behavior in the diverse roles within the scientific system (e.g., as researchers, reviewers, supervisors, editors, or members of commissions). In this sense, we consider the current discussion as a chance to enhance the trustworthiness of our findings and to ultimately create justified confidence.Die Psychologie, und mit ihr auch die Sportpsychologie, befindet sich in einer sogenannten Vertrauenskrise (siehe Titel des Themenhefts). Während die Diskussion ihrer Ursachen und Konsequenzen lebendig geführt wird, fehlt es an der Herausarbeitung individueller Möglichkeiten, Vertrauen wieder kollektiv herzustellen. In diesem Beitrag zeigen wir Wege aus dieser Vertrauenskrise auf und beschreiben insbesondere individuelle Schritte hin zu verlässlichem und offenem Forschen: Verlässliches Forschen bezieht sich auf das Publizieren von robusten Ergebnissen, sowie von direkten und konzeptuellen Replikationsstudien und offenes Forschen auf die Transparenz hinsichtlich der Planung (Präregistrierung), der Durchführung (Open Material) und der Analyse (Open Data, Reproducible Code) wissenschaftlicher Untersuchungen. Das Bekenntnis zu verlässlicher und offener Forschung wird unser Handeln in den verschiedenen Rollen im Wissenschaftssystem (als Forscher, Reviewer, Herausgeber, Betreuer, Kommissionsmitglied etc.) verändern. In diesem Sinne begreifen wir in diesem Beitrag die momentane Diskussion als Chance, die Zuverlässigkeit unserer Befunde nachhaltig zu steigern und langfristig gerechtfertigtes Vertrauen zu schaffen

Representative Percentile Curves of Physical Fitness From Early Childhood to Early Adulthood: The MoMo Study

Introduction: Monitoring of physical fitness in youth is important because physical fitness is a summative indicator of health. From a developmental and preventive perspective, physical fitness levels are relatively stable from childhood to early adulthood. Thus, it is important to monitor physical fitness on a population based level being able to intervene at early stages (1). In order to reliably assess and evaluate the physical fitness of youth, a reliable system of standard values based on representative data is required. The aim of this analysis is to report sex- and age-specific physical fitness percentile curves from childhood to early adulthood in a nationwide sample in Germany. Methods: We use data from the nationwide representative Motorik Modul (MoMo) Study in Germany (data collection wave 1: 2009–2012; age: 4–23 years; n = 3,742; 50.1% female). Physical fitness was assessed by means of the MoMo test profile covering four dimensions of physical fitness (strength, endurance, coordination, and flexibility) and including eight physical fitness items. Percentile curves were fitted using the LMS transformation method of Cole and Green. Results: Standardized age- and sex-specific physical fitness percentiles were calculated for eight items: ergometric endurance testing, standing long jump, push-ups, sit-ups, jumping side-ways, balancing backwards, static stand, and stand and reach test. The physical fitness curves differ according to gender and the fitness dimension. Physical fitness improvements with age are linear (e.g., max. strength) or curvilinear (e.g., coordination) and have their stagnation points at different times over the course of adolescence. Discussion: Our results provide for the first time sex- and age-specific physical fitness percentile curves for Germany from 4 to 17 years. Differences in curve-shapes indicating a timed and capacity-specific physical fitness development. Nationwide German physical fitness percentiles can be useful in comparing different populations (e.g., cross-country), reporting secular trends, comparing special groups, and to evaluate physical fitness interventions

Wege aus der Vertrauenskrise

Psychology faces a so-called crisis of confidence as does sport psychology (see title of this special issue). While the debate on its causes and consequences is lively, the deduction of individual opportunities to collectively increase trust is missing. We propose ways out of this crisis and above all describe individual steps toward a reliable and open science. Reliable science refers to the publication of robust effects, as well as to direct and conceptual replications, and open science refers to transparency regarding the design (preregistration), the conducting (open material), and the analysis (open data, reproducible code) of scientific studies. The commitment to reliable and open science will change our behavior in the diverse roles within the scientific system (e.g., as researchers, reviewers, supervisors, editors, or members of commissions). In this sense, we consider the current discussion as a chance to enhance the trustworthiness of our findings and to ultimately create justified confidence.Die Psychologie, und mit ihr auch die Sportpsychologie, befindet sich in einer sogenannten Vertrauenskrise (siehe Titel des Themenhefts). Während die Diskussion ihrer Ursachen und Konsequenzen lebendig geführt wird, fehlt es an der Herausarbeitung individueller Möglichkeiten, Vertrauen wieder kollektiv herzustellen. In diesem Beitrag zeigen wir Wege aus dieser Vertrauenskrise auf und beschreiben insbesondere individuelle Schritte hin zu verlässlichem und offenem Forschen: Verlässliches Forschen bezieht sich auf das Publizieren von robusten Ergebnissen, sowie von direkten und konzeptuellen Replikationsstudien und offenes Forschen auf die Transparenz hinsichtlich der Planung (Präregistrierung), der Durchführung (Open Material) und der Analyse (Open Data, Reproducible Code) wissenschaftlicher Untersuchungen. Das Bekenntnis zu verlässlicher und offener Forschung wird unser Handeln in den verschiedenen Rollen im Wissenschaftssystem (als Forscher, Reviewer, Herausgeber, Betreuer, Kommissionsmitglied etc.) verändern. In diesem Sinne begreifen wir in diesem Beitrag die momentane Diskussion als Chance, die Zuverlässigkeit unserer Befunde nachhaltig zu steigern und langfristig gerechtfertigtes Vertrauen zu schaffen