@article{FuehnerGranacherGolleetal.2022, author = {F{\"u}hner, Thea and Granacher, Urs and Golle, Kathleen and Kliegl, Reinhold}, title = {Effect of timing of school enrollment on physical fitness in third graders}, series = {Scientific Reports}, volume = {12}, journal = {Scientific Reports}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, address = {London}, issn = {2045-2322}, doi = {10.1038/s41598-022-11710-x}, pages = {1 -- 11}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Timing of initial school enrollment may vary considerably for various reasons such as early or delayed enrollment, skipped or repeated school classes. Accordingly, the age range within school grades includes older-(OTK) and younger-than-keyage (YTK) children. Hardly any information is available on the impact of timing of school enrollment on physical fitness. There is evidence from a related research topic showing large differences in academic performance between OTK and YTK children versus keyage children. Thus, the aim of this study was to compare physical fitness of OTK (N = 26,540) and YTK (N = 2586) children versus keyage children (N = 108,295) in a representative sample of German third graders. Physical fitness tests comprised cardiorespiratory endurance, coordination, speed, lower, and upper limbs muscle power. Predictions of physical fitness performance for YTK and OTK children were estimated using data from keyage children by taking age, sex, school, and assessment year into account. Data were annually recorded between 2011 and 2019. The difference between observed and predicted z-scores yielded a delta z-score that was used as a dependent variable in the linear mixed models. Findings indicate that OTK children showed poorer performance compared to keyage children, especially in coordination, and that YTK children outperformed keyage children, especially in coordination. Teachers should be aware that OTK children show poorer physical fitness performance compared to keyage children.}, language = {en} } @misc{FuehnerGranacherGolleetal.2021, author = {F{\"u}hner, Thea and Granacher, Urs and Golle, Kathleen and Kliegl, Reinhold}, title = {Age and sex effects in physical fitness components of 108,295 third graders including 515 primary schools and 9 cohorts}, series = {Zweitver{\"o}ffentlichungen der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe}, journal = {Zweitver{\"o}ffentlichungen der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe}, issn = {1866-8364}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-54982}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-549827}, pages = {1 -- 13}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Children's physical fitness development and related moderating effects of age and sex are well documented, especially boys' and girls' divergence during puberty. The situation might be different during prepuberty. As girls mature approximately two years earlier than boys, we tested a possible convergence of performance with five tests representing four components of physical fitness in a large sample of 108,295 eight-year old third-graders. Within this single prepubertal year of life and irrespective of the test, performance increased linearly with chronological age, and boys outperformed girls to a larger extent in tests requiring muscle mass for successful performance. Tests differed in the magnitude of age effects (gains), but there was no evidence for an interaction between age and sex. Moreover, "physical fitness" of schools correlated at r = 0.48 with their age effect which might imply that "fit schools" promote larger gains; expected secular trends from 2011 to 2019 were replicated.}, language = {en} } @article{FuehnerGranacherGolleetal.2021, author = {F{\"u}hner, Thea and Granacher, Urs and Golle, Kathleen and Kliegl, Reinhold}, title = {Age and sex effects in physical fitness components of 108,295 third graders including 515 primary schools and 9 cohorts}, series = {Scientific Reports}, volume = {11}, journal = {Scientific Reports}, publisher = {Nature Portfolio}, address = {Berlin}, issn = {2045-2322}, doi = {10.1038/s41598-021-97000-4}, pages = {1 -- 13}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Children's physical fitness development and related moderating effects of age and sex are well documented, especially boys' and girls' divergence during puberty. The situation might be different during prepuberty. As girls mature approximately two years earlier than boys, we tested a possible convergence of performance with five tests representing four components of physical fitness in a large sample of 108,295 eight-year old third-graders. Within this single prepubertal year of life and irrespective of the test, performance increased linearly with chronological age, and boys outperformed girls to a larger extent in tests requiring muscle mass for successful performance. Tests differed in the magnitude of age effects (gains), but there was no evidence for an interaction between age and sex. Moreover, "physical fitness" of schools correlated at r = 0.48 with their age effect which might imply that "fit schools" promote larger gains; expected secular trends from 2011 to 2019 were replicated.}, language = {en} } @misc{FuehnerGranacherGolleetal.2022, author = {F{\"u}hner, Thea and Granacher, Urs and Golle, Kathleen and Kliegl, Reinhold}, title = {Effect of timing of school enrollment on physical fitness in third graders}, series = {Zweitver{\"o}ffentlichungen der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe}, journal = {Zweitver{\"o}ffentlichungen der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe}, number = {800}, issn = {1866-8364}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-56693}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-566933}, pages = {11}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Timing of initial school enrollment may vary considerably for various reasons such as early or delayed enrollment, skipped or repeated school classes. Accordingly, the age range within school grades includes older-(OTK) and younger-than-keyage (YTK) children. Hardly any information is available on the impact of timing of school enrollment on physical fitness. There is evidence from a related research topic showing large differences in academic performance between OTK and YTK children versus keyage children. Thus, the aim of this study was to compare physical fitness of OTK (N = 26,540) and YTK (N = 2586) children versus keyage children (N = 108,295) in a representative sample of German third graders. Physical fitness tests comprised cardiorespiratory endurance, coordination, speed, lower, and upper limbs muscle power. Predictions of physical fitness performance for YTK and OTK children were estimated using data from keyage children by taking age, sex, school, and assessment year into account. Data were annually recorded between 2011 and 2019. The difference between observed and predicted z-scores yielded a delta z-score that was used as a dependent variable in the linear mixed models. Findings indicate that OTK children showed poorer performance compared to keyage children, especially in coordination, and that YTK children outperformed keyage children, especially in coordination. Teachers should be aware that OTK children show poorer physical fitness performance compared to keyage children.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Golle2015, author = {Golle, Kathleen}, title = {Physical fitness in school-aged children}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-85949}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xi, 147, xii}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Physical fitness is an important marker of health that enables people to carry out activities of daily living with vigour and alertness but without undue fatigue and with sufficient reserve to enjoy active leisure pursuits and to meet unforeseen emergencies. Especially, due to scientific findings that the onset of civilization diseases (e.g., obesity, cardiovascular disease) begins in childhood and that physical fitness tracks (at least) into young adulthood, the regular monitoring and promotion of physical fitness in children is risen up to a public health issue. In relation to the evaluation of a child's physical fitness over time (i.e., development) the use of longitudinally-based percentile values is of particular interest due to their underlined dedication of true physical fitness development within subjects (i.e., individual changes in timing and tempo of growth and maturation). Besides its genetic determination (e.g., sex, body height), physical fitness is influenced by factors that refer to children's environment and behaviour. For instance, disparities in physical fitness according to children's living area are frequently reported concerning the fact that living in rural areas as compared to urban areas seems to be more favourable for children's physical fitness. In addition, cross-sectional studies found higher fitness values in children participating in sports clubs as compared to non-participants. However, up to date, the observed associations between both (i.e., living area and sports club participating) and children's physical fitness are unresolved concerning a long-term effect. In addition, social inequality as determined by the socioeconomic status (SES) extends through many areas of children's life. While evidence indicates that the SES is inversely related to various indices of child's daily life and behaviour like educational success, nutritional habits, and sedentary- and physical activity behaviour, a potential relationship between child's physical fitness and the SES is hardly investigated and indicated inconsistent results. The present thesis addressed three objectives: (1) to generate physical fitness percentiles for 9- to 12- year-old boys and girls using a longitudinal approach and to analyse the age- and sex-specific development of physical fitness, (2) to investigate the long-term effect of living area and sports club participation on physical fitness in third- to sixth-grade primary school students, and (3) to examine associations between the SES and physical fitness in a large and representative (i.e., for a German federal state) sample of third grade primary school students. Methods (i/ii) Healthy third graders were followed over four consecutive years (up to grade 6), including annually assessment of physical fitness and parental questionnaire (i.e., status of sports club participation and living area). Six tests were conducted to estimate various components of physical fitness: speed (50-m sprint test), upper body muscular power (1-kg ball push test), lower body muscular power (triple hop test), flexibility (stand-and-reach test), agility (star agility run test), and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) (9-min run test). (iii) Within a cross-sectional study (i.e., third objective), physical fitness of third graders was assessed by six physical fitness tests including: speed (20-m sprint test), upper body muscular power (1-kg ball push test), lower body muscular power (standing long jump [SLJ] test), flexibility (stand-and-reach test), agility (star agility run test), and CRF (6-min run test). By means of questionnaire, students reported their status of organized sports participation (OSP). Results (i) With respect to percentiles of physical fitness development, test performances increased in boys and girls from age 9 to 12, except for males' flexibility (i.e., stable performance over time). Girls revealed significantly better performance in flexibility, whereas boys scored significantly higher in the remaining physical fitness tests. In girls as compared to boys, physical fitness development was slightly faster for upper body muscular power but substantially faster for flexibility. Generated physical fitness percentile curves indicated a timed and capacity-specific physical fitness development (curvilinear) for upper body muscular power, agility, and CRF. (ii) Concerning the effect of living area and sports club participation on physical fitness development, children living in urban areas showed a significantly faster performance development in physical fitness components of upper and lower body muscular power as compared to peers from rural areas. The same direction was noted as a trend in CRF. Additionally, children that regularly participated in a sports club, when compared to those that not continuously participated in a sports club demonstrated a significantly faster performance development in lower body muscular power. A trend of faster performance development in sports club participants occurred in CRF too. (iii) Regarding the association of SES with physical fitness, the percentage of third graders that achieved a high physical fitness level in lower body muscular power and CRF was significantly higher in students attending schools in communities with high SES as compared to middle and low SES, irrespective of sex. Similar, students from the high SES-group performed significantly better in lower body muscular power and CRF than students from the middle and/or the low SES-group. Conclusion (i) The generated percentile values provide an objective tool to estimate childrenʼs physical fitness within the frame of physical education (e.g., age- and sex-specific grading of motor performance) and further to detect children with specific fitness characteristics (low fit or high fit) that may be indicative for the necessity of preventive health promotion or long term athlete development. (ii) It is essential to consider variables of different domains (e.g., environment and behavior) in order to improve knowledge of potential factors which influence physical fitness during childhood. In this regard, the present thesis provide a first input to clarify the causality of living area and sports club participation on physical fitness development in school-aged children. Living in urban areas as well as a regular participation in sports clubs positively affected children´s physical fitness development (i.e., muscular power and CRF). Herein, sports club participation seems to be a key factor within the relationship between living area and physical fitness. (iii) The findings of the present thesis imply that attending schools in communities with high SES refers to better performance in specific physical fitness test items (i.e., muscular power, CRF) in third graders. Extra-curricular physical education classes may represent an important equalizing factor for physical activity opportunities in children of different SES backgrounds. In regard to strong evidence of a positive relationship between physical fitness - in particular muscular fitness/ CRF - and health, more emphasis should be laid on establishing sports clubs and extra-curricular physical education classes as an easy and attractive means to promote fitness-, and hence health- enhancing daily physical activity for all children (i.e. public health approach).}, language = {en} } @misc{GolleMuehlbauerWicketal.2015, author = {Golle, Kathleen and M{\"u}hlbauer, Thomas and Wick, Ditmar and Granacher, Urs}, title = {Physical Fitness Percentiles of German Children Aged 9-12 Years}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-86613}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Background Generating percentile values is helpful for the identification of children with specific fitness characteristics (i.e., low or high fitness level) to set appropriate fitness goals (i.e., fitness/health promotion and/or long-term youth athlete development). Thus, the aim of this longitudinal study was to assess physical fitness development in healthy children aged 9-12 years and to compute sex- and age-specific percentile values. Methods Two-hundred and forty children (88 girls, 152 boys) participated in this study and were tested for their physical fitness. Physical fitness was assessed using the 50-m sprint test (i.e., speed), the 1-kg ball push test, the triple hop test (i.e., upper- and lower- extremity muscular power), the stand-and-reach test (i.e., flexibility), the star run test (i.e., agility), and the 9-min run test (i.e., endurance). Age- and sex-specific percentile values (i.e., P10 to P90) were generated using the Lambda, Mu, and Sigma method. Adjusted (for change in body weight, height, and baseline performance) age- and sex-differences as well as the interactions thereof were expressed by calculating effect sizes (Cohen's d). Results Significant main effects of Age were detected for all physical fitness tests (d = 0.40-1.34), whereas significant main effects of Sex were found for upper-extremity muscular power (d = 0.55), flexibility (d = 0.81), agility (d = 0.44), and endurance (d = 0.32) only. Further, significant Sex by Age interactions were observed for upper-extremity muscular power (d = 0.36), flexibility (d = 0.61), and agility (d = 0.27) in favor of girls. Both, linear and curvilinear shaped curves were found for percentile values across the fitness tests. Accelerated (curvilinear) improvements were observed for upper-extremity muscular power (boys: 10-11 yrs; girls: 9-11 yrs), agility (boys: 9-10 yrs; girls: 9-11 yrs), and endurance (boys: 9-10 yrs; girls: 9-10 yrs). Tabulated percentiles for the 9-min run test indicated that running distances between 1,407-1,507 m, 1,479-1,597 m, 1,423-1,654 m, and 1,433-1,666 m in 9- to 12-year-old boys and 1,262-1,362 m, 1,329-1,434 m, 1,392-1,501 m, and 1,415-1,526 m in 9- to 12-year-old girls correspond to a "medium" fitness level (i.e., P40 to P60) in this population. Conclusions The observed differences in physical fitness development between boys and girls illustrate that age- and sex-specific maturational processes might have an impact on the fitness status of healthy children. Our statistical analyses revealed linear (e.g., lower-extremity muscular power) and curvilinear (e.g., agility) models of fitness improvement with age which is indicative of timed and capacity-specific fitness development pattern during childhood. Lastly, the provided age- and sex-specific percentile values can be used by coaches for talent identification and by teachers for rating/grading of children's motor performance.}, language = {en} }