Effect of timing of school enrollment on physical fitness in third graders
- 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 2011Timing 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.…
Author details: | Thea FühnerORCiD, Urs GranacherORCiDGND, Kathleen GolleORCiDGND, Reinhold KlieglORCiDGND |
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DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-11710-x |
ISSN: | 2045-2322 |
Title of parent work (English): | Scientific Reports |
Publisher: | Springer Nature |
Place of publishing: | London |
Publication type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Date of first publication: | 2022/05/12 |
Publication year: | 2022 |
Release date: | 2022/11/16 |
Volume: | 12 |
Article number: | 7801 |
Number of pages: | 11 |
First page: | 1 |
Last Page: | 11 |
Organizational units: | Humanwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Strukturbereich Kognitionswissenschaften |
DDC classification: | 5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 50 Naturwissenschaften / 500 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik |
Peer review: | Referiert |
Grantor: | Publikationsfonds der Universität Potsdam |
Publishing method: | Open Access / Gold Open-Access |
License (German): | CC-BY - Namensnennung 4.0 International |
External remark: | Zweitveröffentlichung in der Schriftenreihe Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe ; 800 |