Valentin D. Son’kin

Introduction. Childhood and adolescent obesity are associated with impairment of motor skills. However, studies assessing effect of underweight on motor skills as well as the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and motor skills are limited. The purpose of the study was to evaluate relationship between motor skills and BMI in the group of school-aged boys (7–12 years).

Material and methods. The data were collected fr om 7–12-year-old boys (1–5th grade) in the 38 Russia's federal constituent entities of eight federal districts. Height and weight were measured, BMI was calculated. Physical education teachers conducted the testing: endurance 6-minute run test (meters), 3x10 m shuttle run test (seconds), long standing jump (centimeters), forward bend test (centimeters), and 30-m sprint run test (seconds). The dataset contained 54 381 observations. The linear, quadratic and general additive models were built to check relationships between the motor skills and BMI.

Results. It was identified that high values of BMI are associated with impaired results of endurance and speed-strength abilities. Male children with a low and normal BMI values did not differ in motor skills. Despite a low level of explained variation of proportion of motor skills, a significant relationship between of motor development and BMI are noted. In the group of 7-year-old male children, the relationship was not identified. Whereas in the group of 8–12-year-old children it has a curvilinear relationship.

Conclusion. The relationship between motor skills and BMI is curvilinear (quadratic) in the group of 8–12-year-old boys. Hereafter, the modeling of non-linear relationship between motor development and BMI with other predictors might help identifying the optimum zone of body composition wh ere the adaptation potential will be the highest. It is also allowed to compare this zone in the groups of different ages and sexes. © 2023. This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license.