Gender differences in motor skill proficiency from childhood to adolescence: a longitudinal study.
Students' proficiency in three object control and three locomotor skills were assessed in 2000 (M age = 10.06 years, SD = 0.63) in New South Wales, Australia and in 2006-07 (M age = 16.44 years, SD = 0.64). In 2006-07, 266 students, 138 girls (51.9%) and 128 boys (48.1%), had at least one skill reassessed. Boys were more object control proficient than girls. Childhood object control proficiency significantly predicted (p = .001) adolescent object control proficiency (r2 = .39), and, while gender was significant (p = .001), it did not affect the relationship between these variables (p = .53). Because childhood object control proficiency is predictive of subsequent object control proficiency, developing skills in childhood is important.
Faculty of Health Medicine Nursing and Behavioral Sciences at Deakin University, School of Health and Social Development, Victoria, Australia. lisa.barnett@deakin.edu.au
Lisa M
LM
Barnett
Eric
E
van Beurden
Philip J
PJ
Morgan
Lyndon O
LO
Brooks
John R
JR
Beard
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D012737:Sex Factors