Investigating the Age-Related Association between Perceived Motor Competence and Actual Motor Competence in Adolescence

Abstract

Irish adolescents have been found to possess high perceptions of motor competence. However, there is an evidential value to investigating the strength of the relationship between adolescent perceptions of motor competence and their low levels of actual motor competence. The purpose of this research was to gather data on the fundamental, functional, and perceived motor competence in adolescents, differentiated by year group, to discern if participants could assess their perceptions of ability. Data were collected on adolescents (N = 373; mean age: 14.38 ± 0.87 years; 47.7% female) across six second-level schools in Ireland, including measurements of fundamental movement skills, functional movement, and perceived motor competence. Poor levels of fundamental and functional movement were observed, with significant differences between year groups detected. Participants in 1st year scored the highest in overall fundamental movement skills; however, for overall functional movement, 3rd-year participants scored highest. High levels of perceived motor competence were reported across the entire sample. These scores did not align with actual motor competence, nor did any alignment between these measurements improve with aging, countering theorized age-related associations. Future research should target low levels of actual motor competence while emphasizing the cognitive aspects of movement to ensure greater accuracy between actual and perceived motor competence.

Effects of an 8-Week Intervention Targeting the Veridicality of Actual and Perceived Motor Competence Among Irish Adolescents in Project FLAME

“…No feedback was given during or after performances of any skill. This measurement protocol was consistent with previous Irish adolescent FMS research (O'Brien et al, 2016;Philpott et al, 2020).…”

“…Low AMC and high PMC findings from this and other studies suggest that overestimation of AMC (i.e. high levels of perception, not matched by actual skill ability) is an important contributor to the lack of AMC/PMC veridicality (O'Brien et al, 2018;Philpott et al, 2020). High levels of perception are quite common across the globe, with this 'overestimation' issue reported among childhood and adolescent studies across different measures of perception in regions such as Norway, Australia, and Spain (Estevan, Bardid et al, 2021;Lander et al, 2019;Vedul-Kjels˚as et al, 2012).…”

“…Philpott et al (2020) recently examined age-related AMC associations in Irish adolescents ( n = 373; M age = 14.38, SD = 0.87 years) and further supported the stagnation of basic AMC with proficiency levels above 40% only evident for two skills – the run and the catch (Philpott et al., 2020). Undeveloped AMC among Irish adolescents may contribute to declines in their PA behavior in both their adolescence and adulthood (Lester et al., 2017; Lunn et al., 2013).…”

“…Notably, in global research, overestimation of personal competence has been commonplace among children and adolescents (Rogers et al, 2018;Van Veen et al, 2020), and it has been problematic, as it may lead to dangerous risk taking culminating in injury, and has been associated with lower levels of PA, compared to accurate estimations of ability (Schmidt et al, 2013b;Utesch et al, 2018). Irish children and adolescents have similarly been found to have high PMC, despite their low levels of AMC (O'Brien et al, 2018;Philpott et al, 2020) with similar findings reported globally across different physical self-perception toolkits such as the Physical Self-Perception Profile, the Self-Perception Profile for Children, and the Pictorial Movement Scale for Children (Barnett et al, 2008;Rogers et al, 2018;Vedul-Kjels˚as et al, 2012). Consistent findings of high levels of perceived competence across these toolkits have led researchers to question the alignment between perception toolkits and AMC tests (Estevan & Barnett, 2018).…”

“…Given a relative paucity of research on adolescents in relation to PMC (De Meester et al., 2020; Lander et al., 2019), applying veridicality research to this age group is also important, as the adolescent period is fraught with frequent dropouts from sport and PA participation (Bryant et al., 2014; Lunn et al., 2013). Adolescent cognitive development has led some to predict greater accuracy of PMC (De Meester et al., 2020; Stodden et al., 2008), but overestimation of personal AMC within this age group has been very common (Philpott et al., 2020; Rogers et al., 2018). In this context, our purpose, in this research, was to investigate the effectiveness of an 8-week movement-based intervention on increasing the veridicality between PMC and AMC among Irish adolescents.…”