Relations between anthropometric and motor variables of seven-year-old girls with the differentiated level of nutritional status

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to examine the frequency of nutritional status and the relations between anthropometric characteristics and motor skills of the first-grade elementary schools girls from Valjevo. A battery of 16 anthropometric measurements and 9 motor tests was conducted on the pertinent sample (N = 332) of seven-year-old girls. Data were analyzed using common measures of central tendency, measures of variability and canonical correlation analysis. Based on the measured body mass index, 75% of participants have normal body mass, 21% has increased body mass, and 4% is overweight. The results showed that in the group of participants with normal body mass there is no significant connection between two systems of variables (morphological characteristics and motor skills). Data from the group of overweight participants show that the two statistically relevant correlations were extracted in the morpho-motoric space and were interpreted as canonical functions: (1) circular dimensionality of the skeleton and body mass, and explosive strength and (2) subcutaneous fatty tissue and segmented run and running speed. Canonical factors indicate that the greater the size of chest, thigh, shin and body mass, the lower are the results of the composite motor tests (plyometric jump, forward lean-backward lean-throw, long jump and standing jump), that is the girls who had higher values of back skinfold, stomach skinfold, thigh skinfold and shin skinfold, had worse result realization of motor tasks (hand-tapping, foot-tapping and running 5 x 10 m). Empirical data of the research on the isolated canonical structure are relevant from the theoretical point of view, but they also have relevant implications for identifying increased level of nutritional status and the advancement of physical education in elementary school education