Association between Compliance with the 24-Hour Movement Guidelines and Fundamental Movement Skills in Preschoolers: A Network Perspective

Abstract

The present study aimed to analyze the compliance with the 24-h movement guidelines and its association with fundamental motor skills (FMS) in early childhood, considering sex and Body Mass Index (BMI) in a network perspective. Two hundred and twelve preschoolers (109 boys, 4.45 ± 0.78 years old) provided physical activity (PA), sleep duration, screen time, fundamental motor skills (FMS) and BMI data. Relationships between compliance with movement behaviors guidelines, FMS, sex and BMI were calculated using a network analysis. Only two percent of the entire sample complied with the overall 24-h movement behaviors recommendations; while the emerged network in the present study emphasized ball skills as the most critical centrality variable, according to age, reinforcing the importance of ball skills for the engagement and maintenance of PA in children. The present study presents a novel statistical and theoretical perspective that permits hitherto unseen insight into the associations between movement behavior, FMS and their correlates, that appropriately consider the inherent, multifaceted, complexity of these relationships.

Does Sedentary Behavior Predict Motor Competence in Young Children?

“…The direction of this relationship was not expected because we hypothesized sedentary behavior to be a negative predictor of motor competence. When considering the literature, a recent cross-sectional study (Martins et al, 2020) in Brazilian children using network analysis (and considering other relevant factors such as BMI and physical activity) also reported a positive relationship between screen time using a similar parent proxy report measure as the present study (total average duration of TV, computer, and videogames) and locomotor and object control skills for 3-year-olds. However, authors of this study reported that in 4-and 5-year-olds, this association was negative and stronger (Martins et al, 2020).…”

Sleep as a Priority: 24-Hour Movement Guidelines and Mental Health of Chinese College Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…From a network perspective, we can better understand connections between variables in a complex system. Indeed, to facilitate a better understanding of the collective impact of 24-hour movement behaviors on health, researchers have begun to introduce network analysis into this field [ 22 ].…”

24‐hour movement behaviors and fitness in preschoolers: A compositional and isotemporal reallocation analysis

“…Although the importance of these movement behaviors for health is evident, reports from several countries worldwide have shown that less than 15% of preschool-aged children are compliant with the three recommendations of the WHO guidelines. [10][11][12] In Brazilian preschoolers, this adherence is markedly lower 13 and may compromise children´s short and long-term health.…”