EVALUATING BASIC MOTOR COMPETENCE IN ITALIAN CHILDREN POST-COVID-19 PANDEMIC: IMPLICATIONS FOR MOTOR DEVELOPMENT

Motor competence assessment represents one of the most important topics in the field of motor development and physical education. The present cross-sectional study aims to assess basic motor competence, self-perception and enjoyment during physical activity (PA) in a sample of normal weight, and overweight or obese children post COVID-19 pandemic. The participants (N = 107, age = 8-9 years old) were recruited from an experimental project conducted in Lecce (Italy). The motor competence assess ment was undertaken using MOBAK 3-4 protocol, and self-perception and enjoyment were evaluated with two validated questionnaires. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was performed to assess the effect of gender and BMI on the variables considered. Despite the MANOVA results indicating no significant interaction effects between variables, a significant main effect was found for gender [F(10,93) = 2.353, p = .013, η² = 0,218] and BMI cutoff [F(10,93) = 2.351, p = .013, η² = 0,218]. More over, an independent t-test highlighted significant differences in catching, dribbling, balancing and object movement according to gender (p < .05), and in balancing, roll ing and self-movement according to BMI cutoff (p < .05). Self-efficacy differed signifi cantly between males and females, while no significant effect was found for enjoyment.Further studies should investigate the effect of BMI and factors related to physical activity on motor competence development.