A gender difference and grade difference of the difficulty level of the straddle vault movement in the vaulting box exercise of elementary school children

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to clarify the gender and grade differences in the movements that compose the straddle vault of elementary school children. Participants included 453 children (220 boys and 233 girls) from the third to the sixth grade. They performed the straddle vault；their movements were recorded using a video camera from the front and left sides. After the assessment by the observational evaluation criteria and selecting the effective items for the analysis, the item parameters were estimated using the graded response model of the item response theory. For each item, the differential item functioning(DIF)was detected using the likelihood ratio test with gender and grade as conditions. The results are summarized as follows： 1．In girls, the difficulty of making a body axis, grounding on the forefoot, and extending the legs during a springy take-off are higher than in boys. 2．In boys, the difficulty of directing their eyes to the landing position when releasing hands from the box is higher than in girls. 3．In the third and fourth grades, the difficulty of keeping arms close, touching both feet at the same time, and extending the legs at the take-off phase are higher than that in the fifth and sixth grades. 4．In the fifth and sixth grades, the difficulty of making a static posture on landing is higher than that in the third and fourth grades.