Tracking Adiposity and Health-Related Physical Fitness Test Performances From Early Childhood Through Elementary School

Abstract

This study tracked health-related physical fitness measurements in children, including sum of triceps and medial calf skinfolds, timed 1-mile run/walk, 1-min bent-knee sit-up, pull-up, and sit-and-reach values. Results are from 409 boys and 409 girls tested in kindergarten and fifth grade, also retaining their first, second, third, and fourth grade data. In separate gender analyses, Spearman's rho correlations were significant (p < .001) for all grade level pair combinations for each variable. Five-yr tracking of adiposity and all health-related physical fitness measurements for boys and girls was generally moderate from early childhood to the upper elementary ages.

Tracking of Physical Fitness of Primary School Children in Trier: A 4-Year Longitudinal Study

“…BMI and flexibility are probably quite stable in childhood and adolescence [15]. Falk et al [10], McMillan and Erdmann [25], and Vandorpe et al [26] tracked quite similar test groups and also used field-tests in their studies.…”

“…McMillan and Erdmann [25] applied sit-ups and a sit and reach test to check strength and flexibility. Over three years of tracking (Kindergarten-Grade 2; 6.1 ± 0.3 years), they found correlations in sit-ups of r = .44 (m.) and r = .39 (f.) and in sit and reach r = .48 (m.) and .52 (f.).…”

“…PF components were tracked from childhood to adolescence [16–19], during adolescence [20], or from childhood or adolescence to adulthood [21–24], and during childhood [10, 25, 26]. …”

“…The study of McMillan and Erdmann [25] tracked health-related fitness components for 409 boys and 409 girls from kindergarten (6.1 ± 0.3 years) to the fifth grade. The correlations from kindergarten to the second grade lie in the range of r = .39 to r = .82, and from kindergarten to the third grade from r = .37 to r = .84.…”

Association between habitual school travel and muscular fitness in youth

“…As muscular fitness tracks from childhood into adulthood (McMillan & Erdmann, 2010, Marshall et al, 1998 it is important to identify factors associated with its development in youth. Muscular fitness is related to adiposity (Deforche et al, 2003 and habitual physical activity (Moliner-Urdiales et al, 2010a) but these relationship are less widely reported than are the predictors of cardiorespiratory fitness.…”