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The Relationship Between Motor Competence and Physical Fitness from Early Childhood to Early Adulthood: A Meta-Analysis

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Abstract

Background

Motor competence and physical fitness are important factors for promoting positive trajectories of health over time. In 2008, Stodden and colleagues developed a model that discussed the role of both factors in physical activity. Furthermore, the authors hypothesized that the relationship between motor competence and physical fitness is reciprocal and changes over time.

Objective

The aim of the present meta-analysis was to synthesize the evidence on the relationship between motor competence and components of physical fitness from early childhood to early adulthood and the potential influence of age.

Methods

Scientific databases Web of Science and PubMed were used for the literature search. German- as well as English-language studies were included that assessed typically developing children. In accordance with the PRISMA guidelines, 93 studies between 2005 and June 2018 were screened in full. Nineteen studies comprising of 32 samples, 87 single data points from 15,984 participants aged 4.5–20.4 years (Mage = 11.44, SD = 4.77) were included in the analysis.

Results

A random effects model was conducted for the meta-regression with age as moderator variable. The relationship between motor competence and physical fitness was moderate to large (r = 0.43, p < 0.001) after controlling for multiple effects, including dependent samples and small sample sizes in the quantitative synthesis. Additionally, age was a small significant positive moderator of the effect size.

Conclusions and Implications

The findings provide support for a moderate to large positive relationship between motor competence and physical fitness that strengthens with increasing age. However, the results also indicate that there may be an overlap in content between motor competence and physical fitness assessments, which warrants further investigation. More research is also needed to assess similarities and differences in terms of the construct structures.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Jan Beck and David Niehues for their help in the data screening process.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sport Psychology, University of Münster, Horstmarer Landweg 62b, 49149, Münster, Germany

    Till Utesch & Bernd Strauss

  2. School of Education, University of Strathclyde, 141 St James Road, Glasgow, G4 0LT, Scotland, UK

    Farid Bardid

  3. Department of Movement and Sports Sciences, Ghent University, Watersportlaan 2, 9000, Ghent, Belgium

    Farid Bardid

  4. Arbeitsbereich Sport und Training, Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg, Institut für Sportwissenschaft, Uhlhornsweg 49-55, 26129, Oldenburg, Germany

    Dirk Büsch

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Contributions

Dr. Till Utesch conceptualized the study, coordinated and supervised data collection, carried out the data analyses, drafted and revised the manuscript, and approved the final manuscript as submitted. Dr. Farid Bardid conceptualized the study, contributed to drafting and revising the manuscript, and approved the final manuscript as submitted. Prof. Dr. Dirk Büsch critically conceptualized the study, critically reviewed the manuscript, and approved the final manuscript as submitted. Prof. Dr. Bernd Strauss conceptualized the study, critically reviewed the manuscript, and approved the final manuscript as submitted.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Till Utesch.

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Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on the Open Science Framework (OSF) (http://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/P36RQ or https://osf.io/p36rq). This includes the final data file and R script used to conduct the meta-analysis, and the BibTex files that cover all records retrieved from the literature search.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Funding

No financial support was received for the conduct of this review or preparation of this manuscript.

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Utesch, T., Bardid, F., Büsch, D. et al. The Relationship Between Motor Competence and Physical Fitness from Early Childhood to Early Adulthood: A Meta-Analysis. Sports Med 49, 541–551 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-019-01068-y

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