Motor abilities, body image and physical self-efficacy in obese and non-obese chidren

AIM: To analyse the relationship among motor abilities, body image and self-efficacy in 30 males (mean ± SD age 9.23 ± 1.13 years, height 138.97 ± 8.81 cm, weight 40.97 ± 11.53 kg) and 38 females (mean ± SD age 8.87 ± 0.84 years, height 135.63 ± 8.12 cm, weight 39.96 ± 11.13 kg), and to check the possible differences by gender and body weight. METHODS: Difference between perceived and ideal body image (BI) was measured with seven same-gender silhouettes (Collins 1991), and self-efficacy with the Physical Self-Efficacy Scale for Children (Colella et al. 2007, in press). Age-appropriate field-based tests of standing long jump (SLJ), 1 Kg medicine ball throw (MBT), basketball throw (BT), 10-m and 20-m sprint from a standing position (10-m and 20-m), and agility test (4 x 10 m) were also administered to the participants.RESULTS: ANOVA 2 (sex) x 2 (group) was executed for each variable. Significant differences by gender were found in all motor tests with males performed better than females. Significant main effects by group emerged in the difference between perceived and ideal body image, in SLJ, 10-m, 20-m and agility tests. Children NOW presented a lower difference between the real and ideal body image and performed better in motor tests than their OW/OB counterparts. Significant main effects between sex and group were found on 20-m test: follow-up with the Scheffé test indicated that NOW males differed from all other partecipants. Pearson’s product-moment correlations revealed significant relationships (p<.01) between the six motor-performance tests, and between BMI and SLJ, BMI and 20-m, BMI and BI. All motor tests except for MBT and BT were correlated with the Physical Self-efficacy Scale (p<.001) and with the difference between perceived and ideal body image (p<.01). Results confirm that OW/OB children report greater body dissatisfaction and poorer performances on weight-bearing tasks than their normal-weight peers.