Background/Purpose The development of motor competencies is considered an important component of healthy development. However, there is not much reliable data on motor development. In this paper, current motor development data of German children and adolescents are presented.
Method Data were obtained from the 'Motorik-Modul'-study (MoMo). MoMo originally started between 2003 and 2006 with a nationwide representative cross-sectional sample of 4,529 German boys and girls aged 4 to 17 years (cf. Bös et al., 2009), and is now continued longitudinally as a cohort sequence design. The first survey wave started in 2009 and will end in 2012. Currently there are 533 longitudinal data sets available. Therefore, the following results are only provisional. Motor fitness was assessed using a standardised test profile on endurance, strength, and flexibility as well as gross and fine motor performance. Standing long jump performance is here used to trace participants' course of motor development.
Analysis/Results RM-ANOVA revealed that Standing long jump performance of boys and girls increased almost linearly in childhood (Cohort 1: F(1,149)=0.03; p=.857, partial η²=.000). With the onset of puberty performance showed a gender-specific differentiation in favor of boys (Cohort 2: F(1,244)=36.99; p<.01, partial η²=.133) that was increasing in significance over the course of adolescence (Cohort 3: F(1,75)=94.36; p<.01, partial η²=.564) and early adulthood (Cohort 4: F(1,65)=26.89; p<.01, partial η²=.299).
Conclusions The present results reflected the presumed course of development of physical profiency. Comprehensive analysis on stability, variability and predictability of motor development will be conducted at the end of the first survey wave.