Emotional and Behavioral Problems in 4- and 5-Year Old Children With and Without Motor Delays

Abstract

Background: An increased prevalence of psychological and behavioral conditions has been observed in youth and adolescents with DCD. The majority of research examining the relationship between motor skill proficiency and psychological problems has focused on older children and adolescents. The aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between motor skill proficiency and emotional and behavioral problems among pre-school age children with DCD to help determine how young children are when more severe problems begin to emerge (i.e., symptoms meet clinical thresholds) and the prevalence of comorbidity.Methods: Children 4 to 5 years of age (n = 589) from the Coordination and Activity Tracking in CHildren (CATCH) study were divided into two groups: at risk for DCD (rDCD; n = 288) and typically developing (TD; n = 301). Inclusion in the rDCD group required a score ≤16th percentile on the Movement Assessment Battery for Children-2. Emotional and behavioral problems were assessed using the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) 1.5 to 5 year parent-report questionnaire. CBCL data were scored using the CBCL syndrome scales as well as the DSM V revised scale scoring.Results: Seven children had missing or incomplete data on the CBCL and were excluded from the present analysis, leaving 582 participants. The mean age was 5.0 (SD 0.6) years and 57% of children were male (TD: 48% male, rDCD group: 67% male). After adjusting for sex, rDCD children scored significantly higher on all CBCL syndrome scales, all DSM-V scales, and all three summative scales. They were also significantly more likely to score at or above the syndrome scale clinical threshold on anxiety, withdrawn, emotionally reactive, aggression, ADHD, internalizing, externalizing, and total problems; and above the DSM-V thresholds on depression and autism. In addition, rDCD status was associated with a higher probability of meeting criteria for one, two, or more disorders in an ordinal logistic regression model.Conclusion: Preschool-age children with rDCD have more parent-reported psychological problems, and are more likely to be above the clinical threshold for many psychological problems and meet criteria for multiple conditions.

Fundamental Movement Skills and Their Assessment in Primary Schools from the Perspective of Teachers

“…Thus, the respondents of this study may have responded in a more optimistic manner than primary school teaching staff more generally. Research suggests that personality traits can influence use of social media sites (King et al, 2014 ; Rife et al, 2016 ) and that it can be difficult to validate participant identities (King et al, 2014 ) which may have influenced the generalizability of the results. However, it is widely acknowledged that the benefits of social media recruitment outweigh the limitations (King et al, 2014 ), and that online behavioral research can yield similar results to face-to-face equivalents (Casler et al, 2013 ).…”

“…Suggestion of a direct impact on educational attainment provides another mediating pathway through which FMS may influence childhood development; a recent systematic review (Macdonald et al, 2018) found evidence generally in favor of positive associations existing between FMS and educational attainment in reading and mathematics. Studies have also linked low levels of motor ability with social and emotional problems including: being withdrawn in social settings, having a poor selfconcept, higher psychological distress, and increased anxiety levels (Brown & Cairney, 2020;Li et al, 2019a;Rodriguez et al, 2019).…”

Fundamental Movement Skills and their Assessment in Primary Schools from the Perspective of Teachers

“…Studies have suggested that a large proportion of children are unable to perform age-appropriate FMS (11)(12)(13) and therefore speci c and sensitive screening of FMS pro ciency in schools may be valuable in helping to identify children with FMS de cits, opening up the possibility of providing additional targeted support. It is known that early identi cation of motor skill problems is bene cial (14), thus Primary schools would be an ideal location for such assessments.…”

The contribution of motor functions to academic achievement in primary school: State of the art and future directions

“…and externalising behavioural difficulties (aggression, attention, etc. ; Rodriguez et al., 2019) which, in turn, can disrupt their interaction with others. There is also evidence about the pervasive persistence of the impairment in different quality of life domains, such as inadequate self-care, scarce engagement in social and skill-based leisure activities and lower life satisfaction, of individuals with DCD, especially when further comorbid conditions like Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder occur (for a review, see Zwicker et al., 2013).…”