Investigation of motor coordination, physical structure and participation in physical activity in primary school students

In this research, the aim was to determine how the motor coordination of primary school students differs in terms of gender, age, and participation in physical activity. Additionally, the aim was to determine and compare the raw scores of motor coordination in terms of participation in physical activity among male and female students at different age levels. Furthermore, by taking into account the binary and triple interactions of gender, age, and participation in physical activity, the effect of these factors on students' motor coordination was attempted to be determined. The research group consisted of 848 students, including 412 boys and 436 girls aged between 6 and 9 years, who were enrolled in official primary schools in the Suleymanpasa district of Tekirdag. A personal information form prepared by the researchers was used to determine the students' demographic information and physical activity levels or participation in sports organizations. The body height and the body weight measurements were taken to obtain anthropometric characteristics, and Body Mass Index (BMI) values were calculated. The students' motor coordination performance and levels were determined by the Körperkoordinationstest für Kinder (KTK+3) test battery, which assesses their movement skills. In the comparison of the KTK moving sideways and KTK ehc subtest scores of the students according to gender, a significant difference was determined between the groups (p <0.05), favoring male students. In the comparison of the KTK balancing backwards and KTK jumping sideways subtest scores of the KTK3+ test battery according to gender, no significant difference was found between the groups (p> 0.05). In the comparison of all subtests of the KTK3+ test battery according to age level, a significant difference was found between the groups (p <0.05). In the comparison of the actual scores of the KTK3+ test battery subtests according to students' participation in physical activity, a significant difference was found in favor of those who participated in physical activity in all subtests (p<0.05). It was determined that both boy and girl students at all age levels of the participants had higher raw scores in all tests than the groups that did not participate in physical activity. It was determined that only in the 8-year-old female student group, the group that did not participate in physical activity had higher raw scores in the KTK moving sideways test than the group that participated in physical activity. The interaction of gender*age group, gender*participation in sports organization, age group*participation in sports organization, and gender*age group*participation in sports organization did not create a significant difference in any KTK parameter (p>0.05). In conclusion, it was determined that male students aged between 6-9 years old have higher scores in carrying and catching tasks compared to female students. Additionally, increasing age level and participation in physical activity affected obtaining higher scores in all subtests.