The relative age effect and gender difference on fundamental motor skills in preschool children aged 4–5 years

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to examine the existence of Relative Age Effect (RAE) and analyze the effect of gender on Fundamental Motor Skills (FMS) of preschool children aged 4–5 years old. A total of 298 healthy preschool childrenwere evaluated. The Test of Gross Motor Development-2 (TGMD-2) was used to evaluate preschoolers’ FMS. The data showed the main effects on the semester of birth factor in locomotor skills (LM) and total test score (TTS) (p < 0.05), but not in object control skills (OC; p > 0.05). There were also significant main effects on the gender factor in LM and TTS (p < 0.05), but not in OC (p > 0.05). RAE is present in FMS in preschool children, with those born in the first semester outperforming those born in the second semester in LM and TTS. With respect to gender, the scores obtained by girls are higher in LM and TTS.

Keywords:

• Locomotor skills
• object control skills
• fundamental motor skills
• TGMD-2
• RAE
• preschoolers

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the preschoolers who participated in this study. We also thank the kindergarten leaders and teachers who were invited to participate in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data used to support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author.

Notes on contributor 

Conceptualization, M.Z. and X.H.; software, X.H.; formal analysis, M.Z. and X.H.; investigation, M.Z., C.Q., L.C., X.M., S.W. and X.H.; writing—review and editing, M.Z., C.Q., L.C., X.M. and X.H.; visualization, M.Z. and X.H. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Institutional review board statement

The study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki, and approved by the Ethics Committee of Capital University of Physical Education and Sports (code 2021A28).

Informed consent statement

Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Social Science Foundation of China under Grant number 18BTY074.