Abstract
Background
The study aimed to examine the cross-sectional associations between 24-hour activity compositions and motor competence in children and adolescents, while stratifying by sex and school type, and investigate the predicted differences in motor competence when time was reallocated between activity behaviours.
Methods
Data were collected from 359 participants (aged 11.5±1.4 years; 49.3% boys; 96.9% White British). Seven-day 24-hour activity behaviours (sleep, sedentary time, light physical activity (LPA), moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA)) were assessed using wrist-worn accelerometers. Motor competence outcomes were obtained using the Dragon Challenge (process, product, time, and overall scores). Linear mixed models examined associations between activity behaviour compositions and motor competence outcomes for all participants and stratified by school type (primary or secondary) and sex. Post-hoc analyses modelled the influence of reallocating fixed durations of time between activity behaviours on outcomes.
Results
In all participants, relative to other activity behaviours, MVPA had the strongest associations with motor competence outcomes. The stratified models displayed that MVPA had the strongest associations with outcomes in both sexes, irrespective of school type. The largest positive, and negative predicted differences occurred when MVPA replaced LPA or sleep, and when LPA or sleep replaced MVPA, respectively.
Conclusions
Relative to other activity behaviours, MVPA appears to have the greatest influence overall on motor competence outcomes. Reallocating time from LPA or sleep to MVPA reflected the largest positive predicted changes in motor competence outcomes. Therefore, our findings reinforce the key role of MVPA for children’s and adolescents’ motor competence.