The Relationship Between Actual Motor Competence and Physical Activityin Children Mediating Roles of Perceived Motor Competence and Physical Activity Enjoyment

Abstract

This study's objective was to examine whether the relationship between actualmotor competence and physical activity (PA) in children is mediated by perceivedmotor competence (PMC) and physical activity enjoyment. The participantsconsisted of a total of 167 students (male=92, female=75) in 10 differentschools in the fourth grade of primary schools in the central district of IspartaProvince, Turkey, during the 2020-2021 academic year. Multiple parallel media-tion analysis was used to examine the mediation role in the analysis of the data,and regression analysis based on the bootstrapping method was performed. As aresult of the research, it was seen that PMC had a full mediating role betweenactual motor competence and PA (b=0.003, 95% confidence interval [0.002,0.094]). On the other hand, it was determined that PA enjoyment did not have amediating role in this relationship (b=0.001, 95% confidence interval [-0.002,0.005]). The total indirect effect was not significant (b=0.005, 95% confidenceinterval [-0.000, 0.012]). The multiple mediation analysis showed that PMCaccounted for 23.2% of the total effect of actual motor competence on PA. Inconclusion, thefindings show that PMC is an important variable in participation inPA. Therefore, PMC should be considered a key outcome in physical education.