Cargando…

Disentangling the relationship between children’s motor ability, executive function and academic achievement

Even though positive relations between children’s motor ability and their academic achievement are frequently reported, the underlying mechanisms are still unclear. Executive function has indeed been proposed, but hardly tested as a potential mediator. The aim of the present study was therefore to e...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Schmidt, Mirko, Egger, Fabienne, Benzing, Valentin, Jäger, Katja, Conzelmann, Achim, Roebers, Claudia M., Pesce, Caterina
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5560562/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28817625
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0182845
_version_ 1783257681914494976
author Schmidt, Mirko
Egger, Fabienne
Benzing, Valentin
Jäger, Katja
Conzelmann, Achim
Roebers, Claudia M.
Pesce, Caterina
author_facet Schmidt, Mirko
Egger, Fabienne
Benzing, Valentin
Jäger, Katja
Conzelmann, Achim
Roebers, Claudia M.
Pesce, Caterina
author_sort Schmidt, Mirko
collection PubMed
description Even though positive relations between children’s motor ability and their academic achievement are frequently reported, the underlying mechanisms are still unclear. Executive function has indeed been proposed, but hardly tested as a potential mediator. The aim of the present study was therefore to examine the mediating role of executive function in the relationship between motor ability and academic achievement, also investigating the individual contribution of specific motor abilities to the hypothesized mediated linkage to academic achievement. At intervals of ten weeks, 236 children aged between 10 and 12 years were tested in terms of their motor ability (t1: cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength, motor coordination), core executive functions (t2: updating, inhibition, shifting), and academic achievement (t3: mathematics, reading, spelling). Structural equation modelling revealed executive function to be a mediator in the relation between motor ability and academic achievement, represented by a significant indirect effect. In separate analyses, each of the three motor abilities were positively related to children’s academic achievement. However, only in the case of children’s motor coordination, the mediation by executive function accounted for a significance percentage of variance of academic achievement data. The results provide evidence in support of models that conceive executive function as a mechanism explaining the relationship that links children’s physical activity-related outcomes to academic achievement and strengthen the advocacy for quality physical activity not merely focused on health-related physical fitness outcomes, but also on motor skill development and learning.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-5560562
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2017
publisher Public Library of Science
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-55605622017-08-25 Disentangling the relationship between children’s motor ability, executive function and academic achievement Schmidt, Mirko Egger, Fabienne Benzing, Valentin Jäger, Katja Conzelmann, Achim Roebers, Claudia M. Pesce, Caterina PLoS One Research Article Even though positive relations between children’s motor ability and their academic achievement are frequently reported, the underlying mechanisms are still unclear. Executive function has indeed been proposed, but hardly tested as a potential mediator. The aim of the present study was therefore to examine the mediating role of executive function in the relationship between motor ability and academic achievement, also investigating the individual contribution of specific motor abilities to the hypothesized mediated linkage to academic achievement. At intervals of ten weeks, 236 children aged between 10 and 12 years were tested in terms of their motor ability (t1: cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength, motor coordination), core executive functions (t2: updating, inhibition, shifting), and academic achievement (t3: mathematics, reading, spelling). Structural equation modelling revealed executive function to be a mediator in the relation between motor ability and academic achievement, represented by a significant indirect effect. In separate analyses, each of the three motor abilities were positively related to children’s academic achievement. However, only in the case of children’s motor coordination, the mediation by executive function accounted for a significance percentage of variance of academic achievement data. The results provide evidence in support of models that conceive executive function as a mechanism explaining the relationship that links children’s physical activity-related outcomes to academic achievement and strengthen the advocacy for quality physical activity not merely focused on health-related physical fitness outcomes, but also on motor skill development and learning. Public Library of Science 2017-08-17 /pmc/articles/PMC5560562/ /pubmed/28817625 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0182845 Text en © 2017 Schmidt et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Schmidt, Mirko
Egger, Fabienne
Benzing, Valentin
Jäger, Katja
Conzelmann, Achim
Roebers, Claudia M.
Pesce, Caterina
Disentangling the relationship between children’s motor ability, executive function and academic achievement
title Disentangling the relationship between children’s motor ability, executive function and academic achievement
title_full Disentangling the relationship between children’s motor ability, executive function and academic achievement
title_fullStr Disentangling the relationship between children’s motor ability, executive function and academic achievement
title_full_unstemmed Disentangling the relationship between children’s motor ability, executive function and academic achievement
title_short Disentangling the relationship between children’s motor ability, executive function and academic achievement
title_sort disentangling the relationship between children’s motor ability, executive function and academic achievement
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5560562/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28817625
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0182845
work_keys_str_mv AT schmidtmirko disentanglingtherelationshipbetweenchildrensmotorabilityexecutivefunctionandacademicachievement
AT eggerfabienne disentanglingtherelationshipbetweenchildrensmotorabilityexecutivefunctionandacademicachievement
AT benzingvalentin disentanglingtherelationshipbetweenchildrensmotorabilityexecutivefunctionandacademicachievement
AT jagerkatja disentanglingtherelationshipbetweenchildrensmotorabilityexecutivefunctionandacademicachievement
AT conzelmannachim disentanglingtherelationshipbetweenchildrensmotorabilityexecutivefunctionandacademicachievement
AT roebersclaudiam disentanglingtherelationshipbetweenchildrensmotorabilityexecutivefunctionandacademicachievement
AT pescecaterina disentanglingtherelationshipbetweenchildrensmotorabilityexecutivefunctionandacademicachievement