Kids’ Athletics Program Development and Promoting for Physical Activity, Fundamental Movement Skills, and Social-emotional of Chinese Children

Abstract

This study addresses the global concern of children's health and development, emphasizing their importance to a nation’s future economic and social progress. Recognizing the critical developmental stage of children aged 7–10 in China, the study focuses on improving fundamental movement skills, social- emotional development, and physical activity through the Kids’ Athletics program, developed by World Athletics. The program’s effectiveness was evaluated using the Children’s Fundamental Movement Skills Test (CFMST) to measure displacement, manipulation, and balance skills; a physical activity questionnaire for assessing activity levels and sedentary behavior; and the Social Emotional Ability Questionnaire to gauge social-emotional competencies. Structural equation modeling was employed to explore the relationships among these domains.

The intervention yielded significant improvements in fundamental movement skills, with all skills except walking on a balance beam (p=0.076) showing substantial differences (p

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