Profiles of motor competence and its perception accuracy among children: Association with physical fitness and body fat

Abstract

The main goals of this study were to identify profiles in school-aged children based on actual Motor Competence (MC) and accuracy of Perceived Motor Competence (PMC) and to examine how children with different profiles differ in terms of Physical Fitness (PF) and Body Fat percentage (BF%). The MC of a total of 287 children (51.6% boys, aged between 6 and 10 years-old) was assessed using the Motor Competence Assessment (MCA) instru- ment, and the accuracy of the PMC was measured using motor tasks (standing long jump, throwing, kicking, and walking backwards). PF and BF% were assessed using the 20m shuttle run test and TANITA, respectively. Cluster (C) analysis revealed four profiles, two of which were aligned – high MC-accurate PMC (C4) and low-inaccurate (C2), and two that were non-aligned – high-inaccurate (C1) and low-accurate (C3). Children in C4 performed better on PF and had less BF% than children in C3 and C2.