Abstract
Abstract:
Children from poor, urban, and disadvantaged environments often demonstrate poor motor skill competence in both object control (OC) and locomotor skills (Goodway & Rudisill, 1996; Hamilton et al., 1999). This study examined the motor skill competence of disadvantaged, African American preschoolers. Further, it investigated the effects of a 9-week OC intervention on OC competence. Two instructional approaches were compared: low autonomy (LA) consisting of direct-instruction and a mastery motivational climate (MMC). Participants were randomly assigned to a LA (n = 36), MMC (n = 38), or comparison (no motor intervention) group (n = 39). The LA and MMC groups participated in 18 30-min OC sessions and the comparison group participated in the same amount of unstructured recess. All children were pre-and posttested on the OC subscale of the TGMD-2 (Ulrich, 2001). Preintervention OC competence was low based on percentile ranks (LA = 23%, MMC = 20%, comparison = 20%). A 3 (Group) x 2 (Sex) ANOVA on pre-OC scores revealed no significant group differences (p = .90) or Group x Sex interaction (p = .60). However, a significant sex main effect was found with boys having greater OC competence than girls, F(1, 107) = 29.34, p < .001. A 3 (Group) x 2 Time x 2 (Sex) ANOVA with repeated measures revealed a significant Group x Time interaction, F(2, 107) = 210.97, p < .001, indicating the OC intervention was effective. Post hoc Tukey HSD analysis reported the LA (p ≤ = < .001) and MMC (p ≤ = < .001) groups had significantly better OC competence than the Comparison group from pre- to postintervention. There was no difference between the LA and MMC groups (p = .88). A nonsignificant Group x Time x Sex interaction (p = .94) showed that there were no sex differences within groups from pre- to postintervention. Clearly, disadvantaged preschoolers had low OC competence and needed motor intervention. When instruction was provided by either LA or MMC, preschool children improved their OC skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
