TY - THES A1 - Fühner, Thea Heidi T1 - Secular trends, age, sex, and timing of school enrollment effects on physical fitness in children and adolescents T1 - Effekte von säkularen Trends, Alter, Geschlecht und Zeitpunkt der Einschulung auf die körperliche Fitness von Kindern und Jugendlichen N2 - The relevance of physical fitness for children’s and adolescents’ health is indisputable and it is crucial to regularly assess and evaluate children’s and adolescents’ individual physical fitness development to detect potential negative health consequences in time. Physical fitness tests are easy-to-administer, reliable, and valid which is why they should be widely used to provide information on performance development and health status of children and adolescents. When talking about development of physical fitness, two perspectives can be distinguished. One perspective is how the physical fitness status of children and adolescents changed / developed over the past decades (i.e., secular trends). The other perspective covers the analyses how physical fitness develops with increasing age due to growth and maturation processes. Although, the development of children’s and adolescents’ physical fitness has been extensively described and analyzed in the literature, still some questions remain to be uncovered that will be addressed in the present doctoral thesis. Previous systematic reviews and meta-analyses have examined secular trends in children’s and adolescents’ physical fitness. However, considering that those analyses are by now 15 years old and that updates are available only to limited components of physical fitness, it is time to re-analyze the literature and examine secular trends for selected components of physical fitness (i.e., cardiorespiratory endurance, muscle strength, proxies of muscle power, and speed). Fur-thermore, the available studies on children’s development of physical fitness as well as the ef-fects of moderating variables such as age and sex have been investigated within a long-term ontogenetic perspective. However, the effects of age and sex in the transition from pre-puberty to puberty in the ninth year of life using a short-term ontogenetic perspective and the effect of timing of school enrollment on children’s development of physical fitness have not been clearly identified. Therefore, the present doctoral thesis seeks to complement the knowledge of children’s and adolescents’ physical fitness development by updating secular trend analysis in selected components of physical fitness, by examining short-term ontogenetic cross-sectional developmental differences in children`s physical fitness, and by comparing physical fitness of older- and younger-than-keyage children versus keyage-children. These findings provide valuable information about children’s and adolescents’ physical fitness development to help prevent potential deficits in physical fitness as early as possible and consequently ensure a holistic development and a lifelong healthy life. Initially, a systematic review to provide an ‘update’ on secular trends in selected components of physical fitness (i.e., cardiorespiratory endurance, relative muscle strength, proxies of muscle power, speed) in children and adolescents aged 6 to 18 years was conducted using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis statement guidelines. To examine short-term ontogenetic cross-sectional developmental differences and to compare physical fitness of older- and younger-than-keyage children versus keyage-children physical fitness data of 108,295 keyage-children (i.e., aged 8.00 to 8.99 years), 2,586 younger-than-keyage children (i.e., aged 7.00 to 7.99 years), and 26,540 older-than-keyage children (i.e., aged 9.00 to 9.99 years) from the third grade were analyzed. Physical fitness was assessed through the EMOTIKON test battery measuring cardiorespiratory endurance (i.e., 6-min-run test), coordina-tion (i.e., star-run test), speed (i.e., 20-m linear sprint test), and proxies of lower (i.e., standing long jump test) and upper limbs (i.e., ball-push test) muscle power. Statistical inference was based on Linear Mixed Models. Findings from the systematic review revealed a large initial improvement and an equally large subsequent decline between 1986 and 2010 as well as a stabilization between 2010 and 2015 in cardiorespiratory endurance, a general trend towards a small improvement in relative muscle strength from 1972 to 2015, an overall small negative quadratic trend for proxies of muscle power from 1972 to 2015, and a small-to-medium improvement in speed from 2002 to 2015. Findings from the cross-sectional studies showed that even in a single prepubertal year of life (i.e., ninth year) physical fitness performance develops linearly with increasing chronological age, boys showed better performances than girls in all physical fitness components, and the components varied in the size of sex and age effects. Furthermore, findings revealed that older-than-keyage children showed poorer performance in physical fitness compared to keyage-children, older-than-keyage girls showed better performances than older-than-keyage boys, and younger-than-keyage children outperformed keyage-children. Due to the varying secular trends in physical fitness, it is recommended to promote initiatives for physical activity and physical fitness for children and adolescents to prevent adverse effects on health and well-being. More precisely, public health initiatives should specifically consider exercising cardiorespiratory endurance and muscle strength because both components showed strong positive associations with markers of health. Furthermore, the findings implied that physical education teachers, coaches, or researchers can utilize a proportional adjustment to individually interpret physical fitness of prepubertal school-aged children. Special attention should be given to the promotion of physical fitness of older-than-keyage children because they showed poorer performance in physical fitness than keyage-children. Therefore, it is necessary to specifically consider this group and provide additional health and fitness programs to reduce their deficits in physical fitness experienced during prior years to guarantee a holistic development. N2 - Die Relevanz der körperlichen Fitness für die Gesundheit von Kindern und Jugendlichen ist unbestritten und es ist von entscheidender Bedeutung, den individuellen körperlichen Fitnesszustand von Kindern und Jugendlichen regelmäßig zu untersuchen und zu bewerten, um mögliche negative gesundheitliche Folgen rechtzeitig zu erkennen. Tests zur Bewertung der körperlichen Fitness sind einfach durchzuführen, reliabel und valide, weshalb sie in großem Umfang eingesetzt werden sollten, um Informationen über die Entwicklung der körperlichen Fitness und den Gesundheitszustand von Kindern und Jugendlichen zu erhalten. Bei der Betrachtung der Entwicklung der körperlichen Fitness lassen sich zwei Perspektiven unterscheiden. Die eine Perspektive untersucht, wie sich die körperliche Fitness von Kindern und Jugendlichen in den letzten Jahrzehnten verändert bzw. entwickelt hat (sog. säkulare Trends). Die andere Perspektive analysiert, wie sich die körperliche Fitness mit zunehmendem Alter aufgrund von Wachstums- und Reifungsprozessen entwickelt. Obwohl die Entwicklung der körperlichen Fitness von Kindern und Jugendlichen in der Literatur ausführlich beschrieben und analysiert wurde, sind noch einige Fragen offen, welche in der vorliegenden Doktorarbeit adressiert werden. Frühere systematische Überblicksbeiträge und Meta-Analysen haben säkulare Trends in der körperlichen Fitness von Kindern und Jugendlichen untersucht. Da diese Analysen jedoch mittlerweile 15 Jahre alt sind und Aktualisierungen nur für ausgewählte Komponenten der körperlichen Fitness zur Verfügung stehen, ist es notwendig, die Literatur neu zu analysieren und säkulare Trends für ausgewählte Komponenten der körperlichen Fitness (d. h. aerobe Ausdauer, relative Muskelkraft, Schnellkraft und Schnelligkeit) zu untersuchen. Darüber hinaus wurden die verfügbaren Studien über die Entwicklung der körperlichen Fitness von Kindern sowie die Effekte moderierender Variablen wie Alter und Geschlecht in einer langfristigen ontogenetischen Perspektive untersucht. Die Effekte von Alter und Geschlecht beim Übergang von der Vorpubertät zur Pubertät im neunten Lebensjahr unter einer kurzfristigen ontogenetischen Perspektive und die Effekte des Zeitpunkts der Einschulung auf die Entwicklung der körperlichen Fitness von Kindern sind jedoch bislang nicht eindeutig identifiziert worden. Die vorliegende Doktorarbeit hat daher das Ziel, den Wissensstand über die Entwicklung der körperlichen Fitness von Kindern und Jugendlichen zu ergänzen, indem säkulare Trendanalysen ausgewählter Komponenten der körperlichen Fitness aktualisiert werden, kurzfristige ontogenetische Entwicklungsunterschiede in der körperlichen Fitness von Kindern im Querschnitt untersucht werden und die körperliche Fitness von älteren und jüngeren Kindern im Vergleich zu Stichtagskindern analysiert wird. Diese Erkenntnisse liefern wertvolle Informationen über die Entwicklung der körperlichen Fitness von Kindern und Jugendlichen, um möglichen Defiziten in der körperlichen Fitness so früh wie möglich vorzubeugen und damit eine ganzheitliche Entwicklung und ein lebenslanges gesundes Leben zu gewährleisten. Zunächst wurde ein systematischer Überblicksbeitrag verfasst, um den Wissenstand der säkularen Trends bei ausgewählten Komponenten der körperlichen Fitness (d. h. aerobe Ausdauer, relative Muskelkraft, Schnellkraft, Schnelligkeit) bei Kindern und Jugendlichen gemäß den PRISMA Richtlinien zu aktualisieren. Um kurzfristige ontogenetische Entwicklungsunterschiede im Querschnitt zu untersuchen und die körperliche Fitness von älteren und jüngeren Kindern im Vergleich zu Stichtagskindern zu analysieren, wurden die Daten zur körperlichen Fitness von 108.295 Stichtagskindern (d. h. im Alter von 8,00 bis 8,99 Jahren), 2.586 jüngeren Kindern (d. h. im Alter von 7,00 bis 7,99 Jahren) und 26.540 älteren Kindern (d. h. im Alter von 9,00 bis 9,99 Jahren) aus der dritten Klasse analysiert. Die körperliche Fitness wurde anhand der EMOTIKON-Testbatterie zur Messung der aeroben Ausdauer (d. h. 6-min-Lauf), der Koordi-nation (d. h. Sternlauf), der Schnelligkeit (d. h. 20-m-Sprint) sowie der Schnellkraft der unteren (d. h. Standweitsprung) und oberen Extremitäten (d. h. Medizinballstoßen) erhoben. Die statistische Inferenz basierte auf Linear Mixed Models. Die Ergebnisse des systematischen Überblickbeitrags zeigten eine starke anfängliche Verbesserung und einen ebenso starken Rückgang zwischen 1986 und 2010 sowie eine Stabilisierung zwischen 2010 und 2015 bei der aeroben Ausdauer. Zudem war ein allgemeiner Trend zu einer geringen Verbesserung der relativen Muskelkraft zwischen 1972 und 2015, ein insgesamt geringer negativer quadratischer Trend bei der Schnellkraft zwischen 1972 und 2015 sowie eine geringe bis mittlere Verbesserung der Schnelligkeit zwischen 2002 und 2015 zu verzeichnen. Die Ergebnisse der Querschnittsstudien legten dar, dass sich die körperliche Fitness selbst in einem einzigen präpubertären Lebensjahr (d. h. neuntes Lebensjahr) mit zunehmendem chronologischen Alter linear entwickelt, dass Jungen in allen untersuchten Komponenten der körperlichen Fitness bessere Leistungen zeigten als Mädchen und dass sich die Komponenten der körperlichen Fitness in der Stärke der Alters- und Geschlechtseffekte stark unterschieden. Darüber hinaus zeigten die Ergebnisse, dass Kinder, die älter als Stichtagskinder sind, im Vergleich zu Stichtagskindern schlechtere Leistungen zeigten; Mädchen, die älter als Stichtagskinder sind, bessere Leistungen zeigten als Jungen, die älter als Stichtagskinder sind; und Kinder, die jünger als Stichtagskinder sind, bessere Leistungen zeigten als Stichtagskinder. Aufgrund der unterschiedlichen säkularen Trends bei der körperlichen Fitness wird empfohlen, Initiativen für körperliche Aktivität und körperliche Fitness bei Kindern und Jugendlichen zu fördern, um negative Auswirkungen auf die Gesundheit und das Wohlbefinden zu verhindern. Insbesondere sollten Initiativen im Bereich der öffentlichen Gesundheit speziell das Training der aeroben Ausdauer und der Muskelkraft berücksichtigen, da beide Komponenten starke positive Assoziationen mit Gesundheitsmarkern aufweisen. Darüber hinaus legen die Ergebnisse nahe, dass Sportlehrkräfte, Trainer und Trainerinnen oder Wissenschaftler und Wissenschaftlerinnen eine proportionale Anpassung nutzen können, um die körperliche Fitness von Kindern im vorpubertären Schulalter individuell zu interpretieren. Ein besonderes Augenmerk sollte auf die Förderung der körperlichen Fitness von Kindern, die älter als Stichtagskinder sind, gelegt werden, da diese schlechtere Leistungen in der körperlichen Fitness zeigten als Stichtagskinder. Daher ist es notwendig, diese Gruppe besonders zu berücksichtigen und zusätzliche Gesundheits- und Fitnessprogramme anzubieten, um ihre Defizite in der körperlichen Fitness abzubauen und eine ganzheitliche Entwicklung zu gewährleisten. KW - physical fitness KW - children KW - adolescents KW - primary school KW - secular trends KW - age KW - sex KW - timing of school enrollment KW - körperliche Fitness KW - Kinder KW - Jugendliche KW - Grundschule KW - säkulare Trends KW - Alter KW - Geschlecht KW - Zeitpunkt der Einschulung Y1 - 2023 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-588643 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Teich, Paula A1 - Fühner, Thea Heidi A1 - Golle, Kathleen A1 - Kliegl, Reinhold T1 - How did the Sars-CoV-2 Pandemic affect the Physical Fitness of Primary School Children? N2 - Throughout the years 2020 and 2021, schools were temporarily closed to slow the spread of SarsCoV-2. For some periods, children were locked out of sports in schools (physical education lessons, school sports working groups) and organized sports in sports clubs which often resulted in physical inactivity. Did these restrictions affect children’s physical fitness? The EMOTIKON project (www.uni-potsdam.de/emotikon) annually assesses the physical fitness (cardiorespiratory endurance [6-minute-run test], coordination [star-run test], speed [20-m sprint test], lower [standing long jump test] and upper [ball push test] limbs muscle power, and balance [one-legged stance test]) of all third graders in the Federal State of Brandenburg, Germany. Participation is mandatory for all public primary schools. In the falls from 2016 to 2021, 83,476 keyage children (i.e., school enrollment according to the legal key date, between eight and nine years in third grade) from 512 schools were assessed with the EMOTIKON test battery. We tested the Covid pandemic effect on a composite score of the four highly correlated physical fitness tests assessing cardiorespiratory endurance, coordination, speed and powerLOW and on another composite score of the three running tests (cardiorespiratory endurance, coordination, speed), as well as separately on all six physical fitness components. Secular trends for each of the physical fitness components and differences between schools and children were taken into account in linear mixed models. We found a negative Covid pandemic effect on the two composite physical fitness scores, as well as on cardiorespiratory endurance, coordination, and speed. We found a positive Covid pandemic effect on powerLOW. Coordination was associated with the largest negative Covid pandemic effect, also passing the threshold of smallest meaningful change (SMC, i.e., 0.2 Cohen’s d) when accumulated across two years. Given the educational context, Covid pandemic effects were also compared relative to the expected age-related development of the physical fitness components between eight and nine years. The Covid pandemic-related developmental costs/gains ranged from three to seven months relative to a longitudinal age effect, and from five to 17 months relative to a cross-sectional age effect. We propose that a longitudinal assessment yields a more reliable estimate of the developmental (age-related) gain than a cross-sectional one. Therefore, we consider the smaller Covid pandemic-related developmental costs/gains to be more credible. Interestingly, on the school level, „fitter” schools (relatively higher Grand Mean) exhibited larger negative Covid pandemic effects than schools with a lower physical fitness score. Negative Covid pandemic effects for the three run tasks were also found by Bähr et al. (2022), who tested the physical fitness of 16,496 Thuringian third-graders from 292 schools with the same six physical fitness tests used in EMOTIKON. Our results may be used to prioritize health-related interventions. KW - Sars-CoV-2 KW - Covid pandemic effects KW - Physical fitness KW - EMOTIKON KW - primary school children KW - Linear Mixed Models Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-560855 N1 - Gewünschte Zitationsform: APA Teich, P., Fühner, T., Golle, K., & Kliegl, R. (2022). „How did the Sars-CoV-2 Pandemic affect the Physical Fitness of Primary School Children?” 54. Jahrestagung der Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Sportpsychologie (asp 2022) in Münster 2022-06-16 (revised 2022-09-09). ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Kliegl, Reinhold A1 - Teich, Paula A1 - Granacher, Urs A1 - Fühner, Thea Heidi T1 - Developmental Gains in Physical Fitness Components of Keyage and Older-than-Keyage Third-Graders N2 - Children who were enrolled according to legal enrollment dates (i.e., keyage third-graders aged eight to nine years) exhibit a positive linear physical fitness development (Fühner et al., 2021). However, children who were enrolled with a delay of one year or who repeated a grade (i.e., older-than-keyage children [OTK] aged nine to ten years in third grade) appear to exhibit a poorer physical fitness relative to what could be expected given their chronological age (Fühner et al., 2022). However, because Fühner et al. (2022) compared the performance of OTK children to predicted test scores that were extrapolated based on the data of keyage children, the observed physical fitness of these children could either indicate a delayed physical-fitness development or some physiological or psychological changes occurring during the tenth year of life. We investigate four hypotheses about this effect. (H1) OTK children are biologically younger than keyage children. A formula transforming OTK’s chronological age into a proxy for their biological age brings some of the observed cross-sectional age-related development in line with the predicted age-related development based on the data of keyage children, but large negative group differences remain. Hypotheses 2 to 4 were tested with a longitudinal assessment. (H2) Physiological changes due to biological maturation or psychological factors cause a stagnation of physical fitness development in the tenth year of life. H2 predicts a decline of performance from third to fourth grade also for keyage children. (H3) OTK children exhibit an age-related (temporary) developmental delay in the tenth year of life, but later catch up to the performance of age-matched keyage children. H3 predicts a larger developmental gain for OTK than for keyage children from third to fourth grade. (H4) OTK children exhibit a sustained physical fitness deficit and do not catch up over time. H4 predicts a positive development for keyage and OTK children, with no greater development for OTK compared to keyage children. The longitudinal study was based on a subset of children from the EMOTIKON project (www.uni-potsdam.de/emotikon). The physical fitness (cardiorespiratory endurance [6-minute-run test], coordination [star-run test], speed [20-m sprint test], lower [standing long jump test] and upper [ball push test] limbs muscle power, and balance [one-legged stance test]) of 1,274 children (1,030 keyage and 244 OTK children) from 32 different schools was tested in third grade and retested one year later in fourth grade. Results: (a) Both keyage and OTK children exhibit a positive longitudinal development from third to fourth grade in all six physical fitness components. (b) There is no evidence for a different longitudinal development of keyage and OTK children. (c) Keyage children (approximately 9.5 years in fourth grade) outperform age-matched OTK children (approximately 9.5 years in third grade) in all six physical fitness components. The results show that the physical fitness of OTK children is indeed impaired and are in support of a sustained difference in physical fitness between the groups of keyage and OTK children (H4). KW - Physical Fitness KW - Developmental gains KW - Primary school children KW - EMOTIKON KW - Linear Mixed Models KW - Keyage children KW - Older-than-keyage children Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-560870 N1 - Gewünschte Zitationsform: APA Kliegl, R., Teich, P., Granacher, U., & Fühner, T. (2022). "Developmental Gains in Physical Fitness Components of Keyage and Older-than-Keyage Third-Graders". 54. Jahrestagung der Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Sportpsychologie (asp 2022) in Münster, 2022-06-16 (revised 2022-09-09). ER - TY - GEN A1 - Fühner, Thea Heidi A1 - Granacher, Urs A1 - Golle, Kathleen A1 - Kliegl, Reinhold T1 - Effect of timing of school enrollment on physical fitness in third graders T2 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - 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. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 800 Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-566933 SN - 1866-8364 IS - 800 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Fühner, Thea Heidi A1 - Granacher, Urs A1 - Golle, Kathleen A1 - Kliegl, Reinhold T1 - Age and sex effects in physical fitness components of 108,295 third graders including 515 primary schools and 9 cohorts T2 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - 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. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 761 Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-549827 SN - 1866-8364 SP - 1 EP - 13 ER -