Is motor competence a key factor in children’s body composition, independent of the method used for measuring it?

Projects PI&CA/2021/MCA_PND & IPL/2021/MCA_VAL_ESELx.The increase in sedentary behaviors and a decrease in children's physical activity (PA) observed in the last decades led to an increase in the prevalence of overweight and obesity in children worldwide. Most of the investigation in this field focus on components of physical fitness (PF) (cardiovascular fitness and upper body strength), however Motor Competence (MC) has been associated with childhood obesity in several studies. An adequate level of MC is a prerequisite for PF and its development can impact lifelong PA habits therefore it’s important to understand how these variables behave in different measures of body composition (BC). The aim of this study is to understand if the association of MC and childhood obesity is similar in different measures of BC (Body mass index (BMI), Skinfold, and Fat mass in kg) and to determine the role of the different motor skills components (MC, cardiovascular fitness and upper body strength) in this relationship. 181 children with a mean age of 7,93 years (SD = 1.28) were evaluated in MC (MCA instrument), cardiovascular fitness (PACER test), upper body strength (handgrip), BMI, skinfold thickness (Slaughter equation) and fat mass weight (value obtained in the slaughter equation converted in kg). Pearson correlations were used to understand the associations between MC and the BC variables, also separate multiple standard regressions were performed to explore the effect of motor skills components in the different measures of BC. MC, cardiovascular fitness, and upper body strength were used as independent variables (predictors), and BMI, skinfold thickness, and fat mass weight dependent variables. Overall, the results showed that MC is weak to moderately associated with childhood obesity independently of the measure used for BC (range between -.285 and -.316, p < .01). Furthermore, only upper body strength and MC were significant predictors (p < .001), discarding cardiovascular fitness, independently of the method used for BC. Our results indicate that MC seems to have similar behavior, in different methods that evaluate BC.