Scheduled for Motor Behavior Posters, Wednesday, April 10, 2002, 12:45 PM - 1:45 PM, San Diego Convention Center: Exhibit Hall


Gender Differences in Motor Creativity of Seven- and Nine-Year-Old Children

Patrizia Scibinetti and Nicoletta Tocci, University Institute of Motor Sciences, Rome, Rome, Italy

Motor creativity, defined as the combination of perceptions into new motor patterns (Wyrick, 1968), is influenced by intellectual, affective, and cultural factors, and varies with age. Gender differences in young subjects' motor creativity showed contradictory results (Bonatis, 1986; Bhattacharyya, 1992; Cleland & Gallahue 1993) mainly due to different methodological approaches and different studied populations. The purpose of this study was to verify age and gender effects on motor creativity in 7- and 9-year-old children. 60 7-year-old (30 females, 30 males) and 50 9-year-old children (26 females, 24 males) had their parental consent signed to participate in the study. They were administered the Motor Creativity Tests-Form B (Bertsch, 1983), consisting of four items: hoop, ball, bench, and floor. For each test item, subjects' motor creativity score was computed taking into consideration the fluency, flexibility and originality of their motor performances. The test was administered within a single experimental session. A 2 (age groups) x 2 (gender) ANOVA (p=0.05) was applied to the sum of the four scores and an ANOVA for repeated measures to the 4 test items. The 7-year group showed lower and statistically significantly differences in overall motor creativity scores (F( 1,108) =17,59; p < 0.0001). Even though both age groups showed higher scores for male subgroups, no statistically significant gender difference was found (F(1,108) =2.47). A statistically significant differences were found among test items (F (3,324)=92.08; p < 0.0001), where hoop and ball showed lower values (hoop: 7yr 125 ± 26, 9yr 151 ± 30 p < 0.05; ball: 7yr 135 ± 27, 9yr 164 ± 32 p < 0.05; bench: 7yr 168 ± 43, 9yr 184 ± 35 p < 0.0001; floor: 7yr 174 ± 40, 9yr 188 ± 32 p < 0.0001). In agreement with Cleland & Gallahue (1993), gender doesn't seem to contribute to young children's motor creativity. Studying 4-, 6-, and 8-year-old children they found an age difference only between the younger and older children's scores as if, after 6 years of age, a further 2-year motor experience doesn't affect creativity scores. However, the authors didn't consider the originality parameter. Thus, the Bertsch method resulted more appropriate to discriminate motor creativity of 7- and 9-year-old children. Furthermore, the statistically significant difference in score items confirms that different aspects contribute to motor creativity, where bench and floor items seems to be more affected by age.


Keyword(s): assessment, creative movement, early childhood

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