Influence of Various Factors on Mobility in Primary School Children

This study examines the influence of various predictors on mobility in primary school children. A total of 1222 children from 12 randomly selected primary schools in Saarland and Rhineland-Palatinate were tested with the MobiScreen 6-8 and MobiScreen 8-10. A linear regression analysis was used to examine the influence of age, gender, developmental disorder, active sports club membership, school type (school with and without a sports connection), BMI and migration background on mobility. The total time taken to complete the course is analyzed. The SPSS version 29 program was used for this purpose. The significance level is p<.05. There are significant influences of gender, developmental disorder and active sports club membership for MobiScreen 6-8, and significant influences of age, gender, developmental disorder and BMI for MobiScreen 8-10. Thus, the influencing factors appear to change over the course of primary school, with children in the first and second grades apparently benefiting more from active sports club membership than children in the third and fourth grades. Age and a higher BMI do not appear to play an important role until later primary school age.

Keywords: Primary School, Mobility, Motor Development, Children.