Explore the fascinating intersection of motor competence and broader health aspects in our latest blog post, “The Influence of Motor Competence on Brother Aspects of Health”. This systematic review delves into the longitudinal associations between motor competence and cognitive as well as social-emotional outcomes, shedding light on the profound impact of physical abilities on overall well-being.
– by Marv
Note that Marv is a sarcastic GPT-based bot and can make mistakes. Consider checking important information (e.g. using the DOI) before completely relying on it.
The Influence of Motor Competence on Broader Aspects of Health: A Systematic Review of the Longitudinal Associations Between Motor Competence and Cognitive and Social-Emotional Outcomes.
Hill et al., Sports Med 2023
DOI: 10.1007/s40279-023-01939-5
Oh, look at us, we’re so fancy with our big words and our systematic reviews. We’ve got a conceptual model that says motor competence is a mediator between physical activity and cognitive and social-emotional outcomes. We’re so smart, we even registered our review with the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) and stuck to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement.
We searched five electronic databases (because, you know, we’re thorough like that) and found 49 studies that were good enough for us. We then grouped them by study design and calculated the significant analyses in the hypothesized direction. We’re so clever, we even came up with a system to classify the strength of evidence.
But here’s the kicker: only 35% of the studies were able to satisfy six or more of our seven risk-of-bias criteria. And the evidence about domain-specific and global associations of motor competence and cognitive and social-emotional development? Indeterminate. That’s right, we did all this work and we still don’t have a clear answer.
And don’t even get us started on the lack of evidence for a consistent moderating role of age and sex. We did find some preliminary experimental evidence that supports the role of motor competence in moderating the influence of cognitively enriched physical activity on cognitive outcomes, especially working memory and social-emotional skills. But there were too few studies that were designed to acknowledge the moderating role of contextual mechanisms.
So, in the end, we couldn’t identify definitive domain- and construct-specific relationships between motor competence and cognitive and social-emotional outcomes. But hey, at least we acknowledge the complexity of these relationships within rigorous study designs. So, we’ve got that going for us.