title: How important is young children's actual and perceived movement skill competence to their physical activity?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the associations between young children's actual and perceived object control and locomotor skills and physical activity and whether associations differ by sex.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross sectional study.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 136 children consented. Children had actual skill (Test of Gross Motor Development-2), perceived skill (Pictorial Scale of Perceived Movement Skill Competence for Young Children), and moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity (MVPA) (accelerometers) assessed. Independent t-tests assessed sex differences. A regression (with MVPA as the outcome) was performed with all predictor variables (i.e. Actual Object Control, Actual Locomotor, Perceived Object Control, and Perceived Locomotor). Model 2 also adjusted for age, sex, accelerometer wear time and whether the child was from an English speaking background. Interaction terms between the respective actual or perceived skill factor and sex were added to assess sex differences.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Analyses were conducted on 109 children (59 boys, 50 girls; mean age=6.5 years, SD=1.0). Boys had higher actual and perceived object control skill and were more active by an average of 19min per day. There were no sex differences in locomotor skills. There were no associations between skill factors and MVPA, except for girls, where locomotor skill was a significant predictor of MVPA (B=3.66, p=0.016).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Actual rather than perceived skill competence was more important to MVPA in this sample. Locomotor skill competence may be more important than object control skill competence for girls as they may engage in types of physical activity that do not require object control mastery.
authors.affiliation: School of Health and Social Development, Deakin University, Australia. Electronic address: sarah.slykerman@deakin.edu.au.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Slykerman
authors.affiliation: Centre for Physical Activity and Nutrition Research, Deakin University, Australia. Electronic address: nicky.ridgers@deakin.edu.au.
authors.forename: Nicola D
authors.initials: ND
authors.lastname: Ridgers
authors.affiliation: School of Health and Social Development, Deakin University, Australia. Electronic address: christopher.stevenson@deakin.edu.au.
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Stevenson
authors.affiliation: School of Health and Social Development, Deakin University, Australia. Electronic address: lisa.barnett@deakin.edu.au.
authors.forename: Lisa M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Barnett
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D015444:Exercise / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology*; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology*; D012649:Self Concept; D012737:Sex Factors
keywords: Fundamental movement skill; Locomotor skill; Object control skill; Physical self-perception