Physical fitness related to motor performance in scholars aged seven to 15 years

Abstract

There is strong evidence regarding the benefits of physical fitness development upon health. The aim of this study was to describe the physical fitness related to motor performance in children and adolescents, and to examine if there are differences according to sex, age, type of school (public or private) and geographic region (urban or rural). A battery comprising of five motor tests were administered to 526 students aged seven to 15 years from elementary schools of Rio Grande, Brazil: stationary long jump, medicine-ball throw, modified pull-up, 20-meter run and 4-meter shuttle-run. The results indicate that the performance in all tests were higher among boys and increased directly with age group. These two factors (sex and age) were the main predictors of physical fitness amongst the investigated variables. Type of school influenced only the performance in the medicine-ball throw, being higher for students from private schools. Students from urban zone achieved a better performance in all tests, except in the modified pull-up, in which there was no difference between geographic regions. The development of researches with the same approach in other Brazilian regions will allow evaluating the consistency of these findings and understanding possible differences.