Method: Self-Administered Physical Activity Checklist (Sallis et al., 1996) was administered to 211 middle school students (girls = 122) in the United States, and participants’ motor skill level was rated with a five-point scale by the PE teachers. Participants then were grouped into either high (41 girls and 38 boys) or medium/low (81 girls and 51 boys) motor skill group. Compendium of physical activities (Ainsworth et al., 2000) was used to calculate PA-related energy expenditure. In addition, the data of participants’ current involvement in organized sports was collected with a survey sheet.
Analysis/Results: The results of 2 × 2 (gender × motor skill) multivariate analysis of variance revealed that adolescents in the high motor skill group reported significantly higher PA levels of the previous day than those in the medium/low motor skill group in each of the following four PA variables: (a) minutes of PA (M±SD: 130.77±118.77 vs. 79.29±81.23, F(1, 208) = 12.65, p = .000), (b) minutes of moderate and vigorous (MV) PA (108.03±96.02 vs. 46.01±48.65, F(1, 208) = 21.56, p = .000), (c) MET score (13.82±11.86 vs. 6.53±6.98, F(1, 208) = 18.62, p = .000), (d) MVPA MET score (10.29±8.27 vs. 5.56±5.23, F(1, 208) = 23.27, p = .000), Further, the results of Chi Square tests indicated that significantly larger portion of participants in high motor skill group was involved in organized sports (64.7% vs. 13.8%, x2 = 37.93, p = .000) and achieved 60-min cumulative MVPA (72.5% vs. 31.8.7%, x2 = 17.71, p = .000) than those in medium/low motor skill group.
Conclusions: The results of the study support the assumption that competency in motor skills contributes to PA participation. Specifically, competency in motor skill on the part of adolescents is conducive to their involvement in organized sports and, as a result, enhance their PA participation considerably.