The effects of race, living standards, and exercise on the degree of motor development: comparison between schoolchildren in the Republic of Honduras and Japan.

To investigate the development of motor ability according to age and physique, a comparison was made among races and/or living standards of schoolchildren in Republic of Honduras, and between Honduran and Japanese schoolchildren. Based on the results of these comparisons, the extent to which exercise contributes to the development of motor ability was examined. Subjects were schoolchildren of typical three races in Honduras: Negroid, Mongoloid (native Indio), and mixed race (Mongoloid, Caucasoid, and Negroid), who attended public elementary schools. For a further comparison, schoolchildren of mixed race attending private schools, whose living standards are thought to be different from children attending public schools, were also selected. Comparing physique among races from the measurement values in the test battery, Negroid group ranked highest followed by the mixed race group and Mongoloid group. The results for the comparison of motor ability were also in the same order. From the viewpoint of living standards, the physique and motor ability of the private school children, who were from wealthy families, was better than that of the public school children. However, when the degrees of motor development were compared using revised values based on age and physique, the differences among groups became smaller, and there was no significant difference between groups in the 50-meter dash or in the standing long jump. However, a comparison with Japanese schoolchildren showed that, even if there was no difference in physique, Japanese schoolchildren were still superior in motor ability. These results suggest that differences in the degree of motor development are mainly due to differences in exercise experience.

[Physique and motor ability of school children in Republic of Honduras].

The purpose of this study was to investigate the characteristics of the physique and motor ability of elementary school children in the Republic of Honduras in comparison with those of Japanese children. Honduran children of 6 to 15 years old, and a total of 29,602, were examined on the following 10 items: body height, body weight, chest girth, 50 m dash, standing long jump, softball throwing. Burpee test, sitting trunk flexion, zigzag running with holding softball, and foot-balance with closed-eye. The physique of Honduran children was smaller than that of Japanese, but the value of chest girth/body height was not smaller. Among Honduran children of 10 to 15 years old, the girls were heavier and thicker in the chest girth than the boys. The adolescent growth spurt of the physique was observed in boys of 13-14 years old and in girls of 9-10. Furthermore, in almost all the items of motor ability, Honduran children were inferior to Japanese. One of the presumable reasons is the imbalance of nutrition (low level protein and high level fat), which may cause the delay of physical matureness in boys and increase obesity in girls. Another is a lack of proper exercise opportunity to develop their motor ability.