Relationships among perceived and actual motor skill competence and physical activity in Indonesian preschoolers

This study examined the feasibility of recruiting and collecting data of Indonesian preschooler’s fundamental motor skill (FMS) competence, perceived motor competence, and physical activity in school. A secondary purpose was to explore the relationship among perceived motor competence, FMS competence, school day physical activity behaviors, playground physical activity behaviors, and sex of Indonesian preschoolers from urban and rural environments. Preschoolers (N = 66;n = 35 rural,n = 31 urban) were evaluated on the Pictorial Scale of Perceived Movement Skill Competence (PMSC), Perceived Physical Competence subscale (PPC). FMS competence was evaluated using the Test of Gross Motor Development-3. Three-day accelerometry at school yielded percent of school day and percent of playground time spent in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and sedentary behaviors. Children spent 80% of the school day in sedentary behavior and 7% in MVPA. There were sex differences (p < .05) in ball skills favoring boys, and location differences on sedentary playground behaviors (p < .05) with rural children being more sedentary. Children felt “pretty good” about their motor skills (3.29–3.46) on the PPC and PMSC. Regression analyses revealed that location and locomotor skills predicted 13.8% of playground sedentary behaviors; PPC and locomotor skills explained 13.3% of MVPA on the playground; and ball skills predicted 7.7% of PPC. These findings emphasize the need for early motor skill and physical activity interventions and highlight the importance of perceived motor competence.