The Effect of Body Height on Performance based on Product- and Process-oriented Motor Competence Test Batteries in Primary School Children

The Körperkoordinationstest für Kinder (KTK) and the Test of Gross Motor Development 2 (TGMD-2) are valid instruments for the assessment of MC in children. However, only age (KTK and TGMD-2) and gender (KTK) are considered for comparison, although significant variance in height and growth rate is present during childhood. To investigate the impact of height on MC, analysis of anthropometric measurements and MC data (KTK) of 664 children (321 girls) aged 6-10 years old was run. Data of the TGMD-2 will be analyzed and presented in the near future.
A MANOVA revealed a significant multivariate main effect for age groups in boys only (F=4.637, p= .000), although effect sizes were very small. . Significant univariate main effects for age group in boys were obtained for hopping for height (F=4.782; p=.003) and jumping sideways (F=5.930; p=0.001). Height was a significant covariate (F=4.162; p=.003). However, adjusting this covariate had only a marginal effect on the results (F=4.567; p=.000). In our sample height did not affect the performance of motor skills in both boys and girls. We can conclude that in this specific population there are no indications of a positive nor negative impact of height on MC measured by the KTK.