The relationship between motor competence, physical fitness and self-perception in children

Abstract

The aim of the current research was to explore the relationship between motor competence, physical fitness and self-perception, and to study to which extent this relationship may vary by gender.
A sample of 67 children (mean age 11.46 years, SD 0.27) completed Harter's Self-Perception Profile for Children (SPPC), the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (MABC) and the Test of Physical Fitness (TPF) to assess self-perception, motor competence and physical fitness.
The SPPC was stronger related to total score on TPF than to total score on MABC. However, when looking at boys and girls separately, this result was found for the boys only. In the group in general, total scores on both TPF and MABC correlated significantly with three of the domains of SPPC (social acceptance, athletic competence and physical appearance) and general self-worth. This relationship varied by gender. Interestingly, TPF was highest correlated with perception of athletic competence in boys but with perception of social acceptance in girls. A high and significant correlation was found between physical fitness and motor competence for both genders.
The results indicated a strong relationship between physical fitness, motor competence and self-perception in children that varied by gender. This implies that all these factors are essential contributions in order to facilitate participation in physical activity in children.

Full text

The relationship between motor competence,
physical fitness and self-perception in childrencch_1275394..402
V. Vedul-Kjelsås,* H. Sigmundsson,† A.-K. Stensdotter* and M. Haga*
*Department of Physiotherapy, Faculty of Health Education and Social Work, Sør-Trøndelag University College, and
†Department of Psychology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
Accepted for publication 14 May 2011
Keywords
motor co-ordination,
physical health,
self-evaluation
Correspondence:
Vigdis Vedul-Kjelsås,
Faculty of Health
Education and Social
Work, Physiotherapy,
Sør-Trøndelag University
College, 7004 Trondheim,
Norway
E-mail: vigdis.
vedul-kjelsas@hist.no
Abstract
Aim The aim of the current research was to explore the relationship between motor competence,
physical fitness and self-perception, and to study to which extent this relationship may vary by
gender.
Methods A sample of 67 children (mean age 11.46 years, SD 0.27) completed Harter’s
Self-Perception Profile for Children (SPPC),the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (MABC)
and the Test of Physical Fitness (TPF) to assess self-perception, motor competence and physical
fitness.
Results The SPPC was stronger related to total score on TPF than to total score on MABC. However,
when looking at boys and girls separately, this result was found for the boys only. In the group in
general, total scores on both TPF and MABC correlated significantly with three of the domains of
SPPC (social acceptance, athletic competence and physical appearance) and general self-worth.This
relationship varied by gender. Interestingly, TPF was highest correlated with perception of athletic
competence in boys but with perception of social acceptance in girls.A high and significant
correlation was found between physical fitness and motor competence for both genders.
Conclusion The results indicated a strong relationship between physical fitness, motor
competence and self-perception in children that varied by gender.This implies that all these factors
are essential contributions in order to facilitate participation in physical activity in children.
Introduction
Physical fitness is mainly determined by the degree and intensity
of a child’s physical activity over time (Blair et al. 2001). In
addition, a certain level of motor competence may be associated
with higher level of physical fitness (Stodden et al. 2009) and
with the amount and intensity of physical activity in children
(Saakslahti et al. 1999; Okely et al. 2001; Fisher et al. 2005; Wrot-
niak et al. 2006; Williams et al. 2008). Some minimum standard
of motor competence, explained as a person’s ability to carry
out different motor acts including co-ordination of both fine
and gross motor skills, is necessary to manage everyday tasks
(Henderson & Sugden 1992; Burton & Rodgerson 2001).
Individuals are motivated to demonstrate competence (Harter
1987), and perception of competence is an important determi-
nant of achievement-related behaviour (Deci & Ryan 2000). For
example, both domain-specific and global perception of the self
(Harter 1982, 1985) is found to be related to motor competence
(Cantell et al. 2003; Piek et al. 2006).
This might in turn influence the motivation to participate
in physical activity (Hands et al. 2010), and thus also play an
important role for general health. Motor competence (Stodden
et al. 2009; Hands et al. 2010; Mclntyre 2010), physical fitness
(Hands et al. 2009) and perceived competence (Hands et al.
Child: care, health and development
Original Article doi:10.1111/j.1365-2214.2011.01275.x
© 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
394

2009; Barnett et al. 2011) are seen as indicators of participation
in physical activities that promote positive health outcomes
(Stodden et al. 2008).
While physical activity describes the actions or movements
that one actually makes (Powell et al. 1989), physical fitness can
be defined as the capacity to perform physical activity (Ortega
et al. 2008). Physical fitness is divided into two components,
performance- and health-related fitness (Bouchard et al. 2007).
Of particular interest in the present study will be the three main
health-related physical fitness components: cardiorespiratory
fitness, muscular fitness and speed/agility (Ortega et al. 2008).
These components benefit from a physically active lifestyle
(Bouchard et al. 2007). Recent findings demonstrate a strong
and significant relationship between health-related physical
fitness and motor competence in children aged 9–10 years
(Haga 2008b). This relationship seems to be stable over time
(Hands 2008; Haga 2009), and persists into adolescence (Hands
et al. 2009).
To be physically active seems to be related to both actual and
perceived motor and physical competence (Skinner & Piek
2001; Hands et al. 2010; Mclntyre et al. 2010; Robinson 2010;
Barnett et al. 2011). Children have different perceptions of com-
petence in different domains, supporting a multidimensional
approach to the concept of the self (Harter 1982, 1985, 1999).By
using the Self-Perception Profile for Children (SPPC; Harter
1985), motor competence is found to be related both to the
global self-worth and to the domain-specific self-evaluations,
such as perception of scholastic competence, social acceptence,
athletic competence, physical appearance and behavioural
conduct (Cantell et al. 1994, 2003; Rose et al. 1997; Skinner &
Piek 2001; Piek et al. 2006). Additionally, perception of athletic
competence, physical appearance and scholastic competence is
found to vary by gender (Rose et al. 1997; Piek et al. 2006).
These studies indicate that level of motor competence affects
self-perception in many aspects of a child’s life, and were an
argument for a multidimensional view in the present paper,
with focus on self-perception that represents self-evaluations in
different domains.
Self-perception is also found to be correlated to physical
fitness (Chan et al. 2003; Cairney et al. 2006; Carraro et al.
2010). In adolescents physical fitness is found to correlate sig-
nificantly with several areas of the physical dimension of self-
perception (Carraro et al. 2010), and self-perceived fitness
seemed to be related to performance in physical fitness and
exercise activity (Chan et al. 2003). Similarly, in children aged
9–14 years, Cairney and colleagues (2006) found that at least
part of the result on an aerobic fitness test is related to percep-
tion of competence in the physical area. Furthermore, boys
tended to have a higher self-perception of their own fitness,
exercised more and demonstrated higher performance in
endurance and strength than girls (Chan et al. 2003; Carraro
et al. 2010).
Although earlier studies have investigated the relationships
between physical fitness and motor competence, physical
fitness and self-perception, and motor competence and self-
perception, we have not been able to find any studies that take
all three factors into consideration in the same study. In the view
of this, it seems to be of a further need to revisit these areas for
understanding the concept for better health-promotion strate-
gies. Hence, the aim of the current research was to explore the
relationship between motor competence, physical fitness and
self-perception. An additional aim was to study the extent to
which this relationship may vary by gender.
Methods
Participants
The total population of the 6th grade school children (n=82) in
a local mainstream primary school in a city were invited
to participate in the study. Of these, written consent was
obtained for 69 children. Two were excluded as they did not
meet the inclusion criteria, which consisted of no reported
history of learning difficulties or any behavioural, neurological
or orthopaedic problem. Accordingly, 67 children (28 girls and
39 boys) constituted the sample (Table 1), and completed a
Norwegian version of the SPPC (Harter 1985), the Movement
Assessment Battery for Children (MABC; Henderson & Sugden
1992) and the Test of Physical Fitness (TPF; Fjørtoft et al. 2003).
Measures
Movement Assessment Battery for Children
In order to identify motor competence in children, the MABC
(Henderson & Sugden 1992) was used. The test component of
MABC provides a quantitative evaluation of children’s motor
competence, and is divided into four age bands from 4 through
12 years. In the present study, age band 4 (for children aged 11–12
years) was used. Each age band contains eight subtests divided
into three categories: (1) three tests of manual dexterity; (2) two
tests of ball skills; and (3) three tests of static and dynamic
balance. On each subtest,the child receives a score from 0 to 5,0
representing the best performance. The scores on each of the
eight subtests add up a total impairment score which is inter-
preted relative to percentile norms. The MABC has a minimum
Motor competence, physical fitness and self-perception 395
© 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Child: care, health and development,38,3, 394–402

test–retest reliability at any age of 0.75 and an inter-rater reliabil-
ity of 0.70 (Henderson & Sugden 1992; Tan et al. 2001).
Self-Perception Profile for Children
The SPPC is a measure that was devised to tap children’s
domain-specific judgements of their scholastic competence,
social acceptance, athletic competence, physical appearance and
behavioural conduct, and also the global perception of their
worth as a person (global self-worth). The test consists of a
structured alternative format, in which each SPPC item consists
of two opposite descriptions, for example, ‘Some children wish
they could be a lot better at sports’ but‘Other children feel they
are good enough at sports’. First, the individual is asked to
decide which of a pair of statements best reflects them, and
second, they decide if it is ‘really true’ or ‘sort of true’ for them.
This structure decreases the tendency to give socially desirable
responses (Harter 1982, 1999).
Each of the subdomains contains six items, constituting a
total of 36 items. A mean score is computed for each subscale to
form a profile of the child’s perceived competence with respect
to the different domains. Items are scored either 4, 3, 2 or 1,
where a score of 4 reflects the highest perceptions of compe-
tence and a score of 1 reflects the lowest perceptions of compe-
tence (Harter 1985).
The SPPC is found to be a reliable and valid self-report
measure for assessing children’s self-perception (Harter 1985;
Muris et al. 2003). In the present study, the translated Norwe-
gian version was used (Moen et al. 2003).
Test of Physical Fitness
The TPF is a relatively new test battery that aims to provide
a reliable, objective quantification of children’s physical
fitness levels (Fjørtoft et al. 2003; Haga 2008a). It consists of
activities that are included in most children’s everyday play
activities, for example, jumping, throwing, running and climb-
ing. The battery consists of nine test items: three based on
jumping, two on throwing, one on climbing and three on
running. Most items also appear in measures such as the
EUROFIT (Adam et al. 1998), the AST 6-11 (Bös & Wohl-
mann 1987), the FBH test (Bille et al. 1992), while the test
item ‘climbing wall bars’ was especially designed for the TPF
(Fjørtoft et al. 2003).
Test–retest correlation for the total score of the TPF is high,
0.90, and the construct validity of the test was 0.93 for girls and
0.89 for boys (Spearman’s rho; Fjørtoft et al. 2003).
The nine test items are described below:
Standing broad jump: standing long jump for distance.
Jumping a distance of 7 m on two feet as quickly as possible.
Jumping a distance of 7 m on one foot as quickly as possible on
self-chosen leg.
Throwing a tennis ball as far as possible: using self-chosen hand,
one foot placed in front of the other.
Putting a medicine ball (1 kg) with both hands as far as possible:
feet parallel and a shoulder width apart and the ball held against
the chest.
Timed climbing and crossing wall bars (height 255 cm, width
75 cm): up the first, across two columns to the right and down
the fourth.
Timed shuttle sprint: running back and forth 5 m, 10 times.
Timed running 20 m.
Reduced Cooper test: distance covered in 6-min running/
walking around a marked rectangle (9 ¥18 m, the size of a
volleyball field).
Table 1. Descriptive statistics of age, height, weight, physical fitness (Test
of Physical Fitness – TPF), motor competence (Movement Assessment
Battery for Children – MABC) and self-perception (Self-Perception
Profile for Children – SPPC)
Variable Mean SD
Age (year) 11.46 0.27
Height (cm) 148.33 7.15
Weight (kg) 40.18 7.79
Subcategories of TPF
Standing broad jump (cm) 139 22.3
Jumping on two feet for 7 m (s) 3.39 0.7
Jumping on one foot for 7 m (s) 3.0 0.6
Throwing a tennis ball (m) 18.66 5.1
Pushing a medicine ball (m) 5.1 0.8
Climbing wall bars (s) 8.65 2.7
Shuttle run (s) 23.24 1.9
Running 20 m (s) 4.26 0.3
Reduced Cooper test (m) 1039 129.7
Total score on MABC 12.8 6.2
Manual dexterity 5.3 2.6
Ball skills 2.9 2.6
Balance 4.6 3.5
Score on subcategories of SPPC
Scholastic competence 3.17 0.6
Social acceptance 3.19 0.7
Athletic competence 2.96 0.6
Physical appearance 3.19 0.8
Behavioural conduct 3.22 0.5
General self-worth 3.31 0.6
396 V.Vedul-Kjelsås et al.
© 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Child: care, health and development,38,3, 394–402

The following materials are needed for administering the test
items: masking tape, ruler, stopwatch, tennis ball, medicine ball
(1 kg), wall bars at least four columns wide and gymnasium
mats.
Procedure
The study was carried out in accordance with the Declaration of
Helsinki and ethical approval issued by Regional Ethic Commit-
tee (ref.: 2009/958). Prior to the data collection, both partici-
pants and parents were given verbally and written information
about the nature of the study.
All the testing took place during the school day. First, the
SPPC was completed in the classroom, by all children at the
same time. Before the session started, the administrator
explained carefully how the questionnaire was to be completed,
read the statements twice and then gave the children sufficient
time to answer each question. The children were allowed to ask
if there were something they did not understand about the
questionnaire. Within 2 weeks, the children were tested on the
MABC and the TPF. The MABC was executed in classrooms and
in accordance with the manual of MABC. The TPF was carried
out in the school sports hall. Before the child started, every test
item was explained and demonstrated. Test items 1–6 on TPF
were performed twice each, and the best score was used. The
running tests were performed only once. If the child made a
procedural error during the test, performance was interrupted
and the test item repeated. The children were tested individually
both in MABC and TPF, and the tests were organized in such a
way that the children should not be able to compare their per-
formance with each other. The children were tested by the test
leader and assistants who had been trained in the test protocols.
All children completed the tasks.
Data reduction and analysis
Data analysis was carried out via spss version 17.0 for Windows
(SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). First, in order to express the
child’s total performance on the TPF as one score, a total test
score was calculated by transforming the test item scores into a
standardized score (z-scores) from the mean of the whole
sample (n=67). Higher scores indicate better performance on
the tasks (Fjørtoft et al. 2003). Pearson product–moment cor-
relation (r) was used to investigate the possible correlations
between the TPF, the MABC and the SPPC. Statistical signifi-
cance was set at P<0.05.
Results
In Table 1, descriptive statistics for age, height, weight, subcat-
egories on TPF, total score of MABC and subcategories on the
SPPC are shown.
Correlations between the total score of TPF, total score on
MABC and scores on SPPC subcategories for the whole
sample are presented in Table 2. The results indicated that
scores in several SPPC subcategories were stronger related
to TPF than to MABC. The correlation between the total score
on TPF and the total score on MABC for the whole sample
was relatively high and significant (r=-0.612). Both TPF and
MABC correlated significantly with three of the domains
of SPPC (social acceptance, athletic competence, physical
appearance) as well as general self-worth. The highest signifi-
cant correlation was found between TPF and the athletic
competence (r=0.556), and between MABC and the subcat-
egory social acceptance (r=-0.549). This means that high
score (high performance) on TPF coincide with high score
(high self-perception) on SPPC, and that low score on
MABC (high performance) coincide with high score on
SPPC.
Tables 3 and 4 are presenting the correlation between the
total score on TPF, total score on MABC and score on SPPC
subcategories for girls (Table 3) and boys (Table 4). Overall,
SPPC tended to be strongest related to TPF in boys and to
MABC in girls. There was a high and significant correlation
between total score on TPF and total score on MABC both in
girls (r=-0.571) and boys (r=-0.700). There were relatively
high and significant correlations between total score on
TPF and some of the SPPC subcategories, with the highest
correlation between total score on TPF and social acceptance
(r=0.569) in girls and athletic competence (r=0.513) in
boys. The total score on MABC correlated significantly with
four of the SPPC subcategories in girls with the highest cor-
relation between the subcategory social acceptance and MABC
(r=-0.672). Also for boys the highest and most significant
correlation was detected between MABC and social acceptance
(r=-0.403).
Discussion
The main result shows that self-perception was strongly
related to both physical fitness and motor competence in chil-
dren aged 11–12 years. The most important finding in this
study was that scores on several SPPC subcategories were
Motor competence, physical fitness and self-perception 397
© 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Child: care, health and development,38,3, 394–402

Table 2. Correlation between total score on Test of Physical Fitness (TPF), total score on Movement Assessment Battery for Children (MABC) and mean of subcategories of the
Self-Perception Profile for Children (SPPC) for the whole sample (n=67)
Total score
on TPF
Total score
on MABC
Scholastic
competence
Social
acceptance
Athletic
competence
Physical
appearance
Behavioural
conduct
Global
self-worth
Total score on TPF 1 -0.612** 0.105 0.506** 0.556** 0.347** 0.102 0.447**
Total score on MABC 1 -0.195 -0.549** -0.345** -0.301* 0.163 -0.346**
Scholastic competence 1 0.336** 0.260* 0.340** 0.249* 0.350**
Social acceptance 1 0.685** 0.623** 0.001 0.662**
Athletic competence 1 0.659** 0.142 0.673**
Physical appearance 1 0.200 0.783**
Behavioural conduct 1 0.294*
Global self-worth 1
*Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (P<0.05).
**Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (P<0.01).
Table 3. Correlation between total score on Test of Physical Fitness (TPF), total score on Movement Assessment Battery for Children (MABC) and mean of subcategories of the
Self-Perception Profile for Children (SPPC) for girls (n=28)
Total score
on TPF
Total score
on MABC
Scholastic
competence
Social
acceptance
Athletic
competence
Physical
appearance
Behavioural
conduct
Global
self-worth
Total score on TPF 1 -0.571** 0.234 0.569** 0.412* 0.027 -0.072 0.213
Total score on MABC 1 -0.366 -0.672** -0.407* -0.381* 0.381* -0.312
Scholastic competence 1 0.438* 0.359 0.556** 0.225 0.624**
Social acceptance 1 0.592** 0.403* -0.093 0.502**
Athletic competence 1 0.475* 0.057 0.462*
Physical appearance 1 0.159 0.756**
Behavioural conduct 1 0.327
Global self-worth 1
*Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (P<0.05).
**Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (P<0.01).
398 V.Vedul-Kjelsås et al.
© 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Child: care, health and development,38,3, 394–402

stronger related to total score on TPF than to MABC.
However, when looking at boys and girls separately, the same
was found only among the boys. Overall results showed sig-
nificant correlations between total scores both on MABC
and TPF, and three of the domains of SPPC (Table 2). This
relationship was found to vary by gender (Tables 3 & 4). Of
particular interest was that total score on TPF was found
to be highest correlated with perception of athletic compe-
tence in boys but with perception of social acceptance
in girls.
Experience with physical activity may in part explain that
scores on several domains of SPPC tended to be stronger related
to total score on TPF than to MABC in the present study. It is
suggested that time spent in physical activity is positively related
to self-perception of physical fitness (Chan et al. 2003). Fre-
quency and intensity of participation in physical activity also
seems to be recurring factors in explaining the relationship
between motor competence and physical fitness. The high cor-
relation between these two variables in the present study is in
line with other recent studies among children aged 9–10 years
(Haga 2008b) and young adults (Stodden et al. 2009). Children
with high motor competence report more time spent in physical
activity than children with low motor competence (Okely et al.
2001; Chan et al. 2003; Wrotniak et al. 2006; Williams et al.
2008; Barnett et al. 2009). High motor competence in children
may give superior possibilities for participation in different
physical activities and hence increased probability of improved
overall physique (Wrotniak et al. 2006). Furthermore, this may
contribute to persistence and success in activities that require
greater levels of motor competency, and give more chances to
further develop motor competence and physical fitness
(Stodden et al. 2009).
Competence motivation (Harter 1987) may in part explain
the high correlations between total scores on TPF and percep-
tion of athletic competence in the present study. Generally,
high perception of competence contribute to motivation to
both engagement and high effort in activities (Valentini &
Rudisill 2004; Robinson et al. 2009). Stodden and colleagues
(2008) suggested that varied activities of sport and play
together with others seem to be important for children’s
development, and increased physical activity is found to have
positive impact on both athletic and social perception in girls
and boys (Stein et al. 2007). In the present study, a significant
correlation with perception of social acceptance was found for
total score on both TPF and MABC. This is in accordance with
studies that compared children with low motor competence
and children with high motor competence (Rose et al. 1997;
Skinner & Piek 2001).
Table 4. Correlation between total score on Test of Physical Fitness (TPF), total score on Movement Assessment Battery for Children (MABC) and mean of subcategories of the
Self-Perception Profile for Children (SPPC) for boys (n=39)
Total score
on TPF
Total score
on MABC
Scholastic
competence
Social
acceptance
Athletic
competence
Physical
appearance
Behavioural
conduct
Global
self-worth
Total score on TPF 1 -0.700** -0.069 0.397* 0.513** 0.390* 0.206 0.455**
Total score on MABC 1 -0.003 -0.403* -0.312 -0.222 -0.089 -0.384*
Scholastic competence 1 0.175 0.130 0.094 0.263 0.017
Social acceptance 1 0.743** 0.783** 0.083 0.783**
Athletic competence 1 0.707** 0.192 0.747**
Physical appearance 1 0.223 0.757**
Behavioural conduct 1 0.246
Global self-worth 1
*Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (P<0.05).
**Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (P<0.01).
Motor competence, physical fitness and self-perception 399
© 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Child: care, health and development,38,3, 394–402

The significant correlation between perception of physical
appearance and total score on MABC is also in line with Rose
et al. (1997; Skinner & Piek 2001), who found that children
with low motor competence reported lower perceived physical
appearance than the control group with high motor compe-
tence. Perceived physical appearance also correlated signifi-
cantly with total score on TPF. However, this varied by gender.
Perceived physical appearance correlated significantly with total
score on TPF for the boys, and with total score on MABC for the
girls, and may in part be explained by the way boys and girls
emphasize physical fitness and motor competence.For girls, one
may assume that motor competence, especially in fine motor
skills, have been associated with activities closely related to their
perception of appearance (Rose et al. 1997). Boys may empha-
size high performance in physical fitness, in relation to body
satisfaction and perception of physical appearance (Morano
et al. 2011).
In the present study, boys’ score on SPPC was strongest
related to total score on TPF, while girls’ score on SPPC was
strongest related to total score on MABC. Additionally, the
results revealed that physical fitness was strongest related to
perception of social acceptance in girls, and athletic compe-
tence in boys. The motivation to participate in physical activ-
ity, as well as amount of participation may explain these
variances. Boys are found to be more active than girls (Chan
et al. 2003; Tsiotra et al. 2006; Hands et al. 2010), and thereby
gaining more opportunities for practice and training (Chan
et al. 2003). They also emphasize a more competitive approach
than girls (Scully 1997), and expressing high self-perception in
physical activity is suggested to be important to maintain their
masculine identity (Klomsten et al. 2005). One may assume
that activities where health-related physical fitness is included,
as in the TPF in the present study, is more appropriate for the
boys’ way of expressing themselves than the girls’. For girls,
participation seems to rest upon factors like support from
friends, family and caring adults (Neumark-Sztainer et al.
2003; Castelli & Valley 2007).
The results in the present study indicated a strong association
between physical fitness, motor competence and self-perception
in children, which was found to vary by gender.
When applied to participation in physical activity, a factor
of considerable importance in the purpose of health pro-
motion, the present results suggest that emphasis on all these
variables is essential. It may also be argued that gender should
be taken into consideration when creating suitable conditions
for physical activity for children, for example, in educational
settings and leisure activities. To improve our understanding
of this multifaceted relationship, it would be useful to study
further possible differences in physical fitness and self-
perceptions when taking the level of motor competence and
gender into account, as well as investigating children’s partici-
pation in physical activity.
Key messages
• Promoting physical activity in children is of considerable
importance from a health perspective.
• Level of physical fitness, motor competence and self-
perception may impact on participation in physical
activity.
• This study suggests that motor competence, physical
fitness and self-perception are strongly related, and that it
does vary by gender.
• A better understanding of these relationships may con-
tribute to create suitable conditions for participation in
physical activity.
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