Percephraland Motor Skills, 1990, 71, 1200-1202. O Perceptual and Motor Skills 1790

MOTOR DEVELOPMENT O F PUERTO RICAN CHILDREN: CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES ' ROBERTO APONTE

RON FRENCH AND CLAUDINE SHERRILL

Universi& of Puerto Rico

Tmai Woman's University

Summary.-The Test of Gross Motor Development was administered to 300 children, ages 5 to 7 yr., attending public schools in Puerto Rico. Statistical comparisons indicated that the test-manual norms lor US children were applicable to Puerto Rican children except for 7 - y ~ - o l dgirls. A 2 x 3 x 2 factor analysis of intercorrelations of Puerto Rican scores indicated no significant difference between rural and urban children, expected age group differences, and sex differences favoring boys.

Norms for motor development tests are not necessarily generalizable across cultures (Clifton, 1987; Frankenburg, Dick, & Carland, 1975; Malina, 1984; Sandler, Vancampen, Ratner, Stafford, & Weismar, 1970; Werner, 1979). Motor development is influenced by many factors including a host of sociocultural circumstances. The purpose of this study was to assess whether norms for the Test of Gross Motor Development, based on children in the United States, were applicable to Puerto g c a n children. Influences of age, sex, and community size on the children's motor development were also examined and discussed in relation to findings for US children. Subjects were 300 children, whose ages were 5 , 6, and 7 yr., attendng public schools in Puerto Rico. In accordance with the demographic data reported by the Puerto Rican national census, 33 boys and 32 girls for each age group were selected from urban areas and 18 boys and 17 girls for each age group were selected from rural areas. Data were collected through individual administration of the Test of Gross Motor Development (Ulrich, 1985), a qualitative assessment protocol for 12 skills (run, gallop, hop, leap, horizontal jump, skip, slide, two-hand strike, stationary bounce, catch, kick, and overhand throw). Scores were derived by evaluating whether or not children met three or four specific performance criteria for each skdl. Raw data were combined to form two subscale scores (locomotor and object control) and a gross-motor composite score. The validity and reliability of the test have been verified by several statistical procedures, and norms are based on 909 subjects whose ages were 3 to 10 yr. They were from eight states. Individual t tests were used to compare the mean gross motor composite scores of each age group of Puerto Rican boys and girls with those reported in the test manual. The resulting t ratios were 1.13, .09, and .61 for 5-, 6-, 'Address all correspondence to Dr. Ron French, Texas Woman's University, Department of Kinesiology, P O Box 23717, Denton, TX 76204.

1201

MOTOR DEVELOPMENT OF PUERTO RICAN CHILDREN TABLE 1 COMPAIUSON OF GROSSMOTORDEVELOPMENT MEANSCORESBETWEEN PUERTO &CAN BOYSAND GIRLS AND NORMATIVE USA SAMPLE Sex/Age (yr)

Puerto Rico

USA*

M

SD

M

SD 7.20 6.40 6.20

Boys

5 6 7

24.88 28.25 33.16

5.95 5.89 4.85

24.00 28.20 33.80

Girls

5 6

22.02 27.60 29.61

6.83 5.73 5.35

24.00 28.20 33.80

7

*SD not given in manual by sex, but only by age and these SD = 6.4; and 7 yc, SD = 6.2.

df

t

P

50 50 50

1.13 .09 .61

.26 .93 .54

48 48 48

2.03 .74 -5.48

.05 .46

Motor development of Puerto Rican children: cross-cultural perspectives.

The Test of Gross Motor Development was administered to 300 children, ages 5 to 7 yr., attending public schools in Puerto Rico. Statistical comparison...
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