Perceived and actual physical literacy and physical activity: A test of reverse pathway among Hong Kong children

Abstract

Background/objective The directional relationship between physical literacy (PL) and physical activity (PA) in children remains unclear. This study explored the directionality of the relationship between children’s actual PL and PA, and whether their PL perceptions mediate this relationship. Methods This was a cross-sectional study. In total, 371 children (153 boys; M age = 10.0 ± 1.0) from Chinese primary schools were recruited to complete all the assessments. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was conducted to determine a reciprocal relationship between Motivation and Confidence, Daily Behavior and moderate-to vigorous-intensity physical activity (MVPA). Results When perceived PL was examined as a mediator, the model with direction from MVPA to actual PL was observed with significance in Motivation and Confidence ( β = 0.48) and Daily Behavior ( β = 0.20). Perceived PL displayed no mediation effect for the direction from actual PL to MVPA. Conclusions This study provides evidence that engagement in PA might be useful to support the continuous development of PL. As perceived PL is an integral part of this relationship, future research is needed to understand its role for providing potential intervention targets to improve these outcomes among Chinese children.

Exploring physical literacy in children aged 8 to 12 years old: a cross-cultural comparison between China and Greece

“…Attempting to interpret the PL-related differences between the two countries, the three constraint-based models were adopted to act as a framework to illustrate the aspects whereby PL may be influenced [ 43 ]. In the early childhood educational system, more attention should be given to physical activities during school time as it is a critical phase for developing PL and facilitating children’s participation in PA [ 32 ]. Given that the sex and age distributions between Chinese and Greek children were similar, it can be hypothesized that different conditions within the PA environments, i.e., PE, recess, or extracurricular activities, in the two countries may account for the cultural differences in the CAPL-2 domains.…”

“…Although widely used to ascertain children’s PL level [ 30 , 32 ], relevant knowledge for understanding the discrepancy of PL between countries is still very limited. For example, few studies [ 15 , 17 ] have explored how PL has been developed among boys and girls at different ages or in varying cultural and pedagogical contexts wherein sex differences may impact the level of PL between different countries/districts.…”

Differences of physical literacy perception of kindergarten teachers: Seen from demographic information

“…Therefore, they develop the ability to build their ability to apply their knowledge to pour it into the learning scene through physical activities that are in accordance with the character of children aged early (Cox et al, 2017;Starrett et al, 2021). Physical literacy perception contains about how individuals engage and assess physical activity in terms of their self-confidence, self-expression and communication with others, as well as knowledge and understanding that will relate to pouring into learning (Li et al, 2021) especially in learning for early childhood with different handling.…”

Development of ELIP to Assess Physical Literacy for Emerging Adults: A Methodological and Epistemological Challenge

“…Despite the highly pragmatic nature of questionnaires, it could be considered reductive to focus only on questionnaire responses. Further to this, early studies exposed differences between perceived and actual level of PL or physical competences (Barnett et al, 2015;Li et al, 2021).…”