Developmental mechanisms influencing physical activity

To demonstrate the bidirectional relationship between MC and PA, the conceptual framework of Stodden et al. (2008) was utilised in this thesis.

Robinson et al. (2015) reviewed the current evidence on the conceptual hypotheses in the framework by Stodden et al. (2008). The conceptual framework states that there is a bidirectional relationship between PA, MC, PMC, HRF and obesity (Figure 1), a so-called spiral of (dis)engagement in a physically active and healthy lifestyle. For example, if an individual has a good level of MC, (s)he most probably engages in a physically active lifestyle, and the PA positively affects body composition, PMC and HRF. However, if the individual has low MC, (s)he may struggle to engage in physically active games and sport. Subsequently, (s)he may be at risk of obesity, low PMC and poor body composition.

FIGURE 1 Developmental mechanisms influencing physical activity trajectories of chil-dren (Stodden et al. 2008, p. 294). EC= early childhood, MC= middle child-hood, LC= late childhood. From A Developmental Perspective on the Role of Motor Skill Competence in Physical Activity: An Emergent Relationship by Stodden, D.F., Goodway, J.D., Langendorfer, S.J., Roberton, M.A., Rudisill, M.E., Garcia, C., & Garcia, L.E., Quest, copyright © 2008 National Association for Kinesiology in Higher Education (NAKHE), www.nakhe.org, reprinted by permission of Taylor & Francis Ltd, http://www.tandfonline.com on be-half of National Association for Kinesiology in Higher Education (NAKHE), www.nakhe.org., 60:2, 290-306, DOI: 10.1080/00336297.2008.10483582

25 More specifically, it can be suggested that there is a strong, reciprocal and developmentally dynamic relationship, yet age-related, between MC and PA. In early childhood, the development of MC is driven by opportunities to engage in PA (Bürgi et al. 2011; Robinson et al. 2015; Stodden et al. 2008). Therefore, it is important to encourage children to be physically active in various types of surroundings (Sallis et al. 2000), such as in terms of outdoor play (Kyttä 1997), independent mobility (Kyttä 1997, 2003) and the provision of multiple affordances in the environment (Kyttä 2002). Previous research has shown that children find outdoor environments stimulating and motivating (Fjørtoft &

Gundersen 2007; Kyttä 2003; Ward 2018), which can enhance their willingness to engage in PA play. For example, large yards provide affordances to play and run (Fjørtoft 2001), enhancing the development of locomotor (LM) skills, such as walking, running, climbing, galloping and jumping (Donnelly, Mueller, &

Gallahue 2017). Furthermore, large spaces and areas of play are also crucial to practise ball skills (BS) (Iivonen & Sääkslahti 2014). Consequently, these opportunities for PA in multiple surroundings promote neuromotor development, which enhances motor development (Stodden et al. 2008).

Later, in middle and late childhood, the relationship between PA and MC is purported to become more reciprocal. Hence, the level of MC makes it possible for the child to engage in diverse physically active games, plays and sport. That is, if a child has a good motor repertoire, (s)he can engage more in multiple physical activities. On the contrary, if a child has difficulties with these basic movement skills, (s)he will struggle more in participating in age-appropriate sport and games (Bouffard, Watkinson, Thompson, Causgrove & Romanow 1996;

Cantell, Smyth, & Ahonen 1994; Clark & Metcalfe 2002; Emck, Bosscher, Beek, &

Doreleijers 2009) and in fulfilling the recommendations for moderate-to-vigorous-intensity physical activity (MVPA) (De Meester et al. 2018; Williams et al. 2008) and is at risk of accumulating a higher body mass index (BMI) and body weight (Cairney et al. 2010; Cantell, Crawford, & Doyle-Baker 2008; D’Hondt et al. 2014; D’Hondt et al. 2013; Slotte et al. 2015). Additionally, Rodrigues, Stodden and Lopes (2016) underscored that not all children improve their MC and fitness as a function of age. Therefore, early childhood plays a critical role in developing a positive HRF and MC, which protects from obesity and overweight.

Several authors proclaim that basic movement patterns of MC should be mastered before the age of eight (Adolph & Franchak 2017; Donnelly et al. 2017;

Gallahue, Ozmun, & Goodway 2012; Malina, Bouchard, & Bar-Or 2004).

Interestingly, a recent systematic review (Lounassalo et al. 2019) found that the decline in PA starts as early as the age of seven. Therefore, it would be interesting to discover if this outcome is related to a lack of age-appropriate motor skills, which, according to Stodden et al. (2008), would reflect a decline in PA. It could also be a behavioural consequence as children are expected in most Western countries to engage in school activities at approximately this age. According to Reilly (2016), systematic reviews and longitudinal studies suggest that MVPA begins to decline, and sedentary behaviour (SB) begins to increase, starting around the age of school entry, resulting in obesity having become a growing

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problem globally (Ng et al. 2014). Indeed, as summarised in recent systematic reviews, the majority of cross-sectional studies have found a favourable association between PA and MC (Holfelder & Schott 2014; Lubans, Morgan, Cliff, Barnett, & Okely 2010; Xin et al. 2020), and this relationship seems to increase as a function of age (Utesch et al. 2019). Nevertheless, some longitudinal studies struggle to find these relationships between PA and MC (Poitras et al. 2016).

Therefore, it remains unclear whether the decline in PA is associated with SB or lower levels of MC; however, it can be assumed that both are critical factors influencing MC and PA in children under eight years of age (Bardid, Rudd, Lenoir, Polman, & Barnett 2015; Brian et al. 2018).

PMC plays a large role in the spiral of (dis)engagement with PA. It is described as an important factor that mediates the role between actual MC and PA. Thus, there is suggested to be an indirect relationship between MC and PA through an individual’s perception (Robinson et al. 2015; Stodden et al. 2008). In early childhood, children tend to have inflated perceptions of their actual MC (Harter 1999, 2012). As a result, they often confound the effort towards engaging in PA and improving motor skills with the mastery of skills. This tendency is due to a lack of cognitive capacity to make realistic evaluations of one’s actual skills (Harter 1999; Harter & Pike 1984). However, this developmental phase is important for engaging children with PA as it motivates children to persist at skill development despite unsuccessful outcomes. In conclusion, during early childhood, the relationship between PMC and MC is not expected to correlate.

Several studies (De Meester et al. 2018; Hall, Eyre, Oxford, & Duncan 2019; Lopes, Barnett, & Rodrigues 2016; Lopes, Saraiva, Goncalves, & Rodrigues 2018;

Spessato, Gabbard, Robinson, & Valentini 2013; True, Brian, Goodway, &

Stodden 2017) affirm this expectation even though opposite findings also exist.

Duncan, Jones, O'Brien, Barnett and Eyre (2018) and Robinson (2011) found a positive correlation, LeGear et al. (2012) found a modest one and, finally, Pesce, Masci, Marchetti, Vannozzi and Schmidt (2018) and Toftegaard-Stoeckel, Groenfeldt and Andersen (2010) found a weak correlation between MC and PMC in children under eight years of age. Additionally, studies by Brian et al. (2018) and Crane, Foley, Naylor and Temple (2017) found a relationship only between perceptions and BS but not with LM skills. Moreover, in some studies, the correlation has varied based on the gender of the child (Crane et al. 2017; Piek, Baynam, & Barrett 2006).

In middle and late childhood, due to the development of cognitive capacity, children tend to be better at the evaluation of skills, and their perceptions more closely approximate their actual MC (Harter 1999, 2012). Therefore, children with lower MC may have lower perceptions (Piek et al. 2006), and they may perceive many tasks as more difficult and challenging. In contrast, children with higher MC may have higher perceptions and, subsequently, perceive tasks as less difficult and engage in more frequent mastery attempts. As a function of age, the relationship between MC and perceptions of MC should approximate as skills improve and inflated early childhood perceptions decrease (Robinson et al. 2015;

Stodden et al. 2008). There are several studies affirming this expectation (Babic et

27 al. 2014; Carcamo-Oyarzun, Estevan, & Herrmann 2020; True et al. 2017), at least partly (Crane et al. 2017). Contrary to these hypotheses, a recent systematic review and meta-analysis by De Meester, Barnett, Brian, Bowe, Jiménez-Díaz, Van Duyse, Irwin et al. (2020) – which included 69 papers involving children from three years old to adults up to 24 years old – found that the strength of the actual MC–PMC relationship was not moderated by a person’s age.

In essence, in a conceptual framework by Stodden et al. (2008), the relationship between PA and MC is mediated by PMC. PMC’s role in the spiral of engagement with PA becomes more evident as a function of age as children become more aware of their actual MC, which affects their willingness to participate in PA. By the time the conceptual framework was launched, there was a lack of evidence based on PMC in the framework. Later on, Robinson et al. (2015) found preliminary evidence for a relationship in which PMC acts as a mediator for PA and MC. Additionally, a studies by De Meester, Maes et al. (2016) and Khodaverdi, Bahram, Khalaji and Kazemnejad (2013) stated that highly positive PMC promotes PA engagement, affirming the hypothesis of the conceptual framework by Stodden et al. (2008).

Later on, differences were found in how PMC and actual MC correlate in different skill categories of MC (Pill & Harvey 2019). As an example, Barnett, Ridgers and Salmon (2015) found that actual and perceived BS were positively associated, while Liong, Ridgers and Barnett (2015) found a significant correlation between boys’ perception and actual BS but not with girls. Similarly, there is also a study stating a lack of significant associations between MC and PMC in children (Liong et al. 2015). In conclusion, it is difficult to truly ascertain the strengths of the association between MC and PMC in different phases of a child’s development. One main reason for this is a lack of studies using assessment tools that align measures between MC and PMC (Robinson et al.

2015). To gain more understanding about this relationship, aligned measures between MC and PMC should be used (Barnett, Ridgers, & Salmon 2015; Estevan

& Barnett 2018) and more longitudinal studies should be launched.

In the past, the conceptual framework was often used in relation to cross-sectional (Barnett, Lubans, Salmon, Timperio, & Ridgers 2018; Barnett &

Goodway 2018; Lopes, Barnett, & Rodrigues 2016; Spessato, Gabbard, Robinson, et al. 2013) and longitudinal studies (D’Hondt et al. 2013; Lima, Bugge, Ersboll, Stodden, & Andersen 2019; Lima et al. 2017) as well as different theoretical frameworks (Estevan & Barnett 2018; Hulteen et al. 2018), reviews (Robinson et al. 2015) or meta-analyses (Utesch et al. 2019) as a base element.