Antropomotoryka nr 55.indb - Akademia Wychowania Fizycznego w ...

Place of residence and physical activity as determinants of Polish 6-year-old children’s physical fitness
in 6-year-old children at the end of their pre-school education
has been made. What is more, the influence of a
specific environment (either urban or rural) on 6-yearold
child’s motor development which also determines
the level of school readiness, as well as the level of
adaptive skills in the first year of primary school have
been examined. Additionally, the following question
was asked: “Does spontaneous physical activity based
on parents’ subjective opinions diversify the level of
physical development and motor abilities in 6-year-old
children?
Research material and methodology
The material is based on the results of research on
children (girls and boys) attending one-year pre-school
education in randomly selected kindergartens and primary
schools in Poland. In total, 70 000 children born
in 1999–2000 were examined. This group amounted
to approximately 18% of the whole 6-year-old children
population in 2007. It was a representative sample with
respect to the division of population according to administrative
districts, living environment (urban area,
rural area, towns in urban-rural communities, rural areas
in urban-rural communities), and the type of educational
institution [32]. The research was conducted in
two stages. Stage I, in April and May, involved children
finishing their one-year pre-school education. During
Stage II (September-October) children at the beginning
of their one-year pre-school education were examined.
To accomplish the module of motor abilities, 64 Physical
Education teachers were directly engaged in this part of
research. They were properly trained by the authors of
the project. The training was directly supervised by the
authors of the study.
During the first stage of our research, 33459 girls
and boys (97.8% of the total number of the children
involved in the research – Table 1) were examined
within the module assessing the level of physical fitness.
EUROFIT test samples to assess physical fitness
of 6-year-old children were chosen according to availability
and quality of sport facilities in schools and kindergartens
in Poland, as it had been assumed during
the initial stage of the project. Due to limited time and
expenses anticipated in the initial stage of the project,
two physical tests were abandoned: static hand grip
strength, as well as circulatory and respiratory efficiency.
The research programme was supposed to measure
general balance („flamingo balance”), the speed
of arm movement, flexibility, running speed, abdominal
muscles power, explosive strength of lower and upper
limbs based on EUROFIT tests [33]. In case of explosive
strength of upper limbs test a simplified version of
this trial was applied: children were expected to remain
straight-arm hanging (time trial) as previous research
proved that more than a half of children are not able
to perform this test in its original (non-modified) version.
During the test a proper order of the trials was
maintained. A data record which enabled the authors
to collect information on the percentage proportion of
children who were not able to complete particular tests
of motor abilities was introduced.
The results were sorted according to dependent
variables. In the age, sex and environment groups
previously established, as well as 6-year-old students’
spontaneous physical activity reported by their parents,
basic statistical characteristics were calculated (arithmetic
mean and standard deviation). While analysing
the differences in average values of somatic traits and
motor abilities in relation to the place of living and the
level of physical activity, the analysis of variance –
ANOVA was applied at first.
The research results
In Tables 1–6 basic statistical characteristics of 6-yearold
children examined during Stage I of the project “Sixyear-old
child on the threshold of school education” are
displayed. The following random variables were taken
into consideration: sex, place of residence, and spon-
Table 1. The number of children in two stages of research
The data of research Age Total (N) Boys (N) Girls (N)
I stage
IV – V / 2006
II stage
IX – X /2006
6,83 33459 17134 16325
6,28 32670 16867 15803
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