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

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. Pupils were classified into non-overweight (NOW, boys: n=13; girls: n=14) and overweight/obese (OW/OB, boys: n=17; girls: n=24) groups according to the age and sex specific cut-off points described by Cole et al. (2000). 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). CONCLUSION: Results confirm that OW/OB children report greater body dissatisfaction and poorer performances on weight-bearing tasks than their normal-weight peers.