The Developmental Trajectory of Motor Competence of Children That Lived the COVID-19 Confinement Period: A Four-Year Follow-Up Study in Portuguese Children
Aida Carballo-Fazanes was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities under Formación del Profesorado Universitario grant [FPU19/02017] and [EST22/00498]; Cristian Abelairas-Gómez received funding by the MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/ and ERDF a way to make Europe under the grant [RTI2018-096106-A-I00]. Luis Paulo Rodrigues and Rui Silva received funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Regional Operational Program North 2020 under Project TECH-Technology, Environment, Creativity and Health, Grant number Norte-01-0145-FEDER-000043.
Children’s motor competence (MC) was negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic;
however, possible chronic effects have not been studied. Therefore, the aim of this study was
to examine the possible impact of the forced lack of physical activity (PA) during the COVID-19
lockdown on children’s MC two years later. The motor competence of sixty-seven healthy children
(7.4–12.2 years old) was assessed using the Motor Competence Assessment (MCA). All participants
completed the MCA tests at two different moments (before and after the COVID-19 lockdown), four
years apart. The mean values after the COVID-19 lockdown for all participants on the subscales and
on the Total MCA are lower, but no significant changes were found when controlling for gender and
age (p > 0.05 in all analyses). However, a significant decrease was found in the Locomotor subscale in
boys (p = 0.003). After dividing the participants into three age groups, the youngest also suffered
a decrease in the Locomotor subscale (p < 0.001) and their Total MCA (p = 0.04). In addition, those
participants who had a higher MC at baseline decreased their scores for the Locomotor (p < 0.001)
and Manipulative (p < 0.001) subscales, and for the Total MCA (p < 0.001). In conclusion, the younger
children and the more motor proficient did not fully recover from the negative effects of the pandemic
lockdown after two years.
