Antea Sipalo Lilic1, Petra Rajkovic Vuletic1,2, Miran Pehar3, Edin Uzicanin4, Ivana Cerkez Zovko3, Belmin Bujakovic3, Nataša Zenić1
1University of Split, Faculty of Kinesiology, 21000 Split, Croatia
2University of Zagreb, Faculty of Kinesiology, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
3University of Mostar, Faculty of Science and Education, 88000 Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina
4University of Tuzla, Faculty of Sport and Physical Education, 75000 Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Analyzing the Associations between Physical Literacy, Physical Activity Levels, and Sedentary Behavior: Cross-sectional Study in Preadolescent Children
Sport Mont 2024, 22(2), 53-59 | DOI: 10.26773/smj.240708
Abstract
Physical literacy (PL) is considered an important determinant of physical activity level (PAL), but studies have rarely examined the associations between PL and PAL in preadolescents. This study aimed to evaluate associatios between PL, PAL and sedentary behavior (SB) in preadolescents from southeastern Europe. The participants were 9- to 11-year-old children from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina (n=333, 52% girls) who were tested for PL, PAL and SB. The PLAYself questionnaire was used for the evaluation of PL, while PAL was estimated by data provided throughout the Physical Activity Questionnaire for Children (PAQ-C). Pearson’s correlations and multiple regressions were calculated to identify the associations between study variables. The results revealed a significant correlation between PL and PAL in the total sample (16% of the common variance) among boys (10% of the common variance) and girls (25% of the common variance), which was additionally confirmed by multiple regression calculated between the PL subdomains and PAL (R2=0.23, 0.15, and 0.31 for total sample, boys and girls, respectively). The SB was not significantly correlated with PL (<2% of the common variance; p>0.05) or with PAL (<1% of the common variance; p>0.05). The results indicated a stronger association between PL and PAL in girls than in boys, indicating the possible influence of the types of physically demanding activities children are involved in on the studied associations. To explore causality more specifically, intervention studies are warranted.
Keywords
prepubescent children, questionnaire, regression, correlation
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