The Movement Assessment Battery for Children: a comparison of 4-year-old to 6-year-old children from Hong Kong and the United States.
OBJECTIVE
There is little information available on the appropriateness of tests developed in the West for children of different ethnicities. The aim of this study was to examine the suitability of the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (Movement ABC) for use with Hong Kong Chinese preschool children.


METHODS
The performance of 255 Hong Kong Chinese children between the ages of 4 years and 6 years was compared with that of the 493 children of the same age from the United States who took part in the most recent standardization of the Movement ABC.


RESULTS
The test content was found to be suitable for use with Hong Kong Chinese children. However, cross-cultural differences were found on a number of the test items. Chinese children performed significantly better on items contained in the manual dexterity and dynamic balance sections, whereas American children were better at the projection and reception of moving objects.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings highlight the need to ensure that norms for all tests are appropriate for the specific cultural groups being assessed.
Chow
S M
SM
Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China.
Henderson
S E
SE
Barnett
A L
AL
D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006723:Hong Kong; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019957:Motor Skills Disorders / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012016:Reference Values; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States