title: Associations between cycling skill, general motor competence and body mass index in 9-year-old children.
abstract: Learning to ride a bicycle is an important milestone in a child's life. Unfortunately, young traffic casualties remain overrepresented in traffic reports, with single-bicycle crashes as principal cause in children. This correlational, cross-sectional study focuses on the association between cycling skills and two intrinsic characteristics: general motor competence and body mass index (BMI). Therefore, general motor competence, BMI and practical cycling competence were measured in 9-year-old children (n = 40). Significant correlations were found between cycling skills and general motor competence (r = 0.434, p ≤ 0.01), and between cycling skills and BMI (r = - 0.400, p ≤ 0.05). A multiple regression analysis revealed that children's general motor quotient and BMI together predicted 19% of cycling skill score. These findings indicate that general motor competence and bicycle skills are not independent of each other stressing the importance of young children's characteristics when actively participating in traffic. In addition, BMI might be negatively associated with the development of cycling skills in children.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Movement and Sport Sciences , University of Ghent , Watersportlaan 2, 9000 Ghent , Belgium.
authors.forename: Zeuwts
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Linus
authors.forename: Ducheyne
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fabian
authors.forename: Vansteenkiste
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Pieter
authors.forename: D'Hondt
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Eva
authors.forename: Cardon
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Greet
authors.forename: Lenoir
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Matthieu
mesh_terms: D001642:Bicycling / Q000502:physiology*; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009048:Motor Skills; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D012044:Regression Analysis
keywords: bicycling; children; gross motor competence; overweight