Normative values of the motor competence assessment (MCA) from 3 to 23 years of age

doi:10.1016/j.jsams.2019.05.009

Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport

Volume 22, Issue 9, September 2019, Pages 1038-1043

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsams.2019.05.009 Get rights and content

Abstract

Objectives

Growing evidence of the importance of motor competence for developing a healthy lifestyle has been established in the last decade. Nonetheless, no single instrument or observation tool have been able to fully measure this construct, particularly because most were built for the diagnosis of children in risk for motor impairment; are limited to a few years of the developmental span; lack objectivity in the assessment protocols; or do not include the locomotor, stability, and manipulative components. This led to the difficulty of comparing researches, and longitudinally follow children into adulthood. Recently, a novel proposal to assess motor competence was presented - the Motor Competence Assessment (MCA) - and this study aims to present the MCA normative data from 3-to-23 years.

Design and methods

Two thousand and eighty-seven participants (1102 boys) between 3 and 23 years of age were evaluated in the MCA (standing long jump, 10 m shuttle run, throwing velocity, kicking velocity, lateral jumps, shifting platforms). Results for each test were introduced in the LMS Chartmaker 2.3. The best model for test and sex was used, resulting in normative curves and percentile values.

Results

Final norms showed a good fit to the instrument developmental expectations, allowing to differentiate and classify performances along the age interval.

Conclusions

The MCA age- and sex- normative values allow to assess motor competence from childhood to early adulthood. Future directions will include obtaining a total MCA score and the normative scores for the MCA components (stability, locomotion, object control), and to expand the norms to adulthood and old age.

Section snippets

Practical implications

•
The MCA is the first assessment tool designed to be used to evaluate motor competence that uses all the three components (locomotor, stability, and manipulative) and the same tests, along the life span.
•
The MCA normative values presented in this study allow to assess motor competence from childhood to early adulthood, according to sex and age.
•
The use of the MCA normative values will also allow to follow individual changes on motor competence occurring from the age of 3 to 23 years of age.
•
General

Methods

Two thousand and eighty-seven participants (1102 boys) between 3 and 22 years of age were evaluated in the six tests of the Motor Competence Assessment (standing long jump, 10 m shuttle run, throwing ball velocity, kicking ball velocity, lateral jumps, and shifting platforms). Sample size by age was of 50 or more participants, accordingly to the statistical considerations for building normative growth values.¹⁶

The cross-sectional data used in this study belongs to a larger ongoing project that

Results

Analysis of the sample showed that boys and girls had similar age (p > 0.05), but as expected, boys showed better performances on all motor competence tests after controlling for decimal age (all p-values < 0.05). A significant effect of age was also found for all tests and independently of sex (all p-values < 0.05), corresponding to one of the major assumptions of the MCA construction: the ability to differentiate between age related motor competence performance.

The developmental normative

Discussion

This study presents age- and sex-specific motor competence reference data for Portuguese children, adolescents and adults aged 3–23 years. To the best of our knowledge it is the first time that such a wide age range is studied regarding motor competence values on all the three components (locomotor, stability, and manipulative). The literature has established a developmental relationship between motor competence and physical activity that is expected to promote either positive or negative

Conclusions

Looking to the percentile smoothed curves one can clearly note an increasing performance associated with age, a higher acceleration in performance during childhood years (up to about 9–11 years of age) resulting on a curvilinear pattern, and a growing variability across the developmental years (except for the shuttle run). These three characteristics are comparable to the expected developmental trajectories described on motor behavior,2, 25 and somatic characteristics.³⁷

In addition to the

Acknowledgements

Luis P. Rodrigues, Carlos Luz, and Rita Cordovil equally contributed as ﬁrst authors.

The authors wish to acknowledge the collaboration of the students and teachers of the Agrupamento de Escolas de Melgaço, Agrupamento de Escolas Fernando Namora, Colégio Pedro Arrupe, Escola Básica e Jardim de Infância Santo António, Escola Superior de Educação de Viana do Castelo, Escola Superior de Desporto e Lazer de Melgaço, Faculdade de Motricidade Humana.

LPR, RL, MC, BS, and PB were supported by the

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Original researchNormative values of the motor competence assessment (MCA) from 3 to 23 years of age

Abstract

Objectives

Design and methods

Results

Conclusions

Section snippets

Practical implications

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusions

Acknowledgements

J Sci Med Sport

J Adolesc Health

J Sci Med Sport

J Sci Med Sport

J Sci Med Sport

Motor competence and its effect on positive developmental trajectories of health

Sports Med

European normative values for physical fitness in children and adolescents aged 9-17 years: results from 2 779 165 Eurofit performances representing 30 countries

Br J Sports Med

A developmental perspective on the role of motor skill competence in physical activity: an emergent relationship

Quest

Motor competence

Motor coordination, physical activity and fitness as predictors of longitudinal change in adiposity during childhood

Eur J Sport Sci

Does childhood motor skill proficiency predict adolescent fitness?

Med Sci Sports Exerc

The relationship between motor competence and health-related fitness in children and adolescents

PLoS One

The relationship between motor coordination and executive functions in 4th grade children

Eur J Dev Psychol

The evaluation of motor competence in typically developing children: a systematic review

J Phys Educ

A hitchhiker's guide to assessing young people's motor competence: deciding what method to use

J Sci Med Sport

The international growth standard for preadolescent and adolescent children: statistical considerations

Food Nutr Bull

KTK. Körperkoordinationstest für Kinder 2

A review of studies using the Körperkoordinationstest für Kinder (KTK)

Eur J Adapt Phys Activ

Original research
Normative values of the motor competence assessment (MCA) from 3 to 23 years of age