The Age-Related Association of Movement in Irish Adolescent Youth

Abstract

(1) Background: Research has shown that post-primary Irish youth are insufficiently active and fail to reach a level of proficiency across basic movement skills. The purpose of the current research was to gather cross-sectional baseline data on Irish adolescent youth, specifically the prevalence of movement skills and patterns, in order to generate an overall perspective of movement within the first three years (Junior Certificate level) of post-primary education; (2) Methods: Data were collected on adolescents (N = 181; mean age: 14.42 ± 0.98 years), attending two, mixed-gender schools. Data collection included 10 fundamental movement skills (FMS) and the seven tests within the Functional Movement Screen (FMS™). The data set was analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0 for Windows; (3) Results: Overall, levels of actual mastery within fundamental and functional movement were low. There were statistically significant age-related differences observed, with a progressive decline as age increased in both the object control (p = 0.002) FMS sub-domain, and the in-line lunge (p = 0.048) test of the FMS™; (4) Conclusion: In summary, we found emerging evidence that school year group is significantly associated with mastery of movement skills and patterns. Results from the current study suggest that developing a specifically tailored movement-oriented intervention would be a strategic step towards improving the low levels of adolescent fundamental and functional movement proficiency.

Investigating the Age-Related Association between Perceived Motor Competence and Actual Motor Competence in Adolescence

“…The mastery of object-control skills in this study was demonstrably lower than previously published figures among Irish adolescents [ 17 , 20 ] and Irish children [ 18 , 19 ]. While performance in the locomotor skills of the run and horizontal jump were below previous Irish standards, both the vertical jump and skip were comparable or higher than other Irish childhood and adolescent research [ 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 68 ]. In comparison with global studies, performances in the kick, dribble, and balance were lower than previously reported values in British children [ 69 ].…”

“…Older individuals often exhibit improved FMS due to increased access to practice, coaching, corrective feedback, and greater physical stature; however, FMS improvements are not always age-determined [ 6 , 72 ]. This study’s findings are supported by previous Irish research that found an age-related decline in object-control proficiency across the second-level school years [ 20 ]. More recent Irish findings indicate a ‘plateau’ of skills from the age of 10, with no further growth in FMS for children aged 11 and 12 [ 19 ].…”

“…This study presented lower overall composite and individual functional movement values when compared to previous research conducted among Irish adolescents [ 20 , 22 ] and global adolescent populations [ 23 , 30 , 31 ]. The overall mean value of approximately 12 across the three year groups is lower than the score of 14.…”

“…A ceiling effect of FMS performance may occur among Irish cohorts, which may further explain the findings of Lester et al (2017). Among Irish adolescents, less than 40% of participants displayed proficiency in two locomotor skills (vertical and horizontal jump) and four object-control skills (kick, dribble, strike, throw) by the end of their third year of second level school (ages 15–16 years old), indicating a stagnation in skill development in adolescence [ 20 ]. The low levels of physical education (PE) participation among students in Irish primary school settings, in addition to a lack of specialist PE teachers at the primary school level, may be a critical factor in the low skill levels reported in childhood and adolescence [ 21 ].…”

“…The Functional Movement Screen TM (FMS TM ) is the pre-eminent assessment tool within the field of functional movement patterns, and this instrument seeks to detect asymmetries or pain when performing these critical movements [ 29 ]. Irish studies indicate that adolescents possess poor levels of functional movement [ 20 , 22 ]. These figures are lower than previously cited global figures found among Indian adolescents [ 30 ] and in American populations [ 23 , 31 ].…”