Original researchNormative values of the motor competence assessment (MCA) from 3 to 23 years of age
Section snippets
Practical implications
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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.
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The MCA normative values presented in this study allow to assess motor competence from childhood to early adulthood, according to sex and age.
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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.
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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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