EXAMINING THE LINK BETWEEN MOTOR FITNESS AND MORPHOLOGY IN 10-YEAR-OLD CHILDREN

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between motor fitness and morphological factors, including anthropometric measurements and body composition, in a cohort of 10-year-old children. The sample consisted of 32 boys (mean age 10.24 ± 0.22 years, body height: 147.12 ± 6.11 cm, body mass: 42.14 ± 11.02 kg, body mass index: 19.41 ± 4.16 kg/m2) and 29 girls (mean age 10.12 ± 0.20 years, body height: 145.31 ± 7.68 cm, body mass: 40.10 ± 8.76 kg, body mass index: 18.91 ± 3.58 kg/m2). Anthropometric and body composition variables encompassed body height (BH), body mass (BM), body mass index (BMI), body fat mass (BFM), and free-fat mass (FFM). The motor fitness tests, designed to evaluate strength, coordination, speed and aerobic fitness, included standing long jump (SLJ), medicine ball throw (MBT), sit-ups in 30 seconds test (SUT), hand tapping test (HTT), obstacle course backwards test (OCB), and shuttle run test (SRT). While there were no notable differences between boys and girls in terms of morphology, for MBT (p = 0.011) and HTT (p = 0.016) fitness tests significant sex-differences were observed. Except HTT, all motor variables showed small to moderate correlations with morphological variables. Through the utilization of regression analysis, it was determined that BMI (r = 0.201 - 0.389) and BFM (r = 0.166 - 0.418) were the most influential predictor variables for the majority of motor variables. These findings suggest that anthropometry and body composition have a moderate impact on performance in motor tests that assess strength, body coordination, and aerobic fitness.