Investigation of physical activity and physical fitness of children

Abstract

The purposes of this study were to investigate of physical activity levels of children and how their physical fitness. Moreover, it was aimed that to analyze physical fitness and physical activity levels of them with regard to their age and gender.

Total 665 children (362 boys and 303 girls) ages between 11, 12, 13 and 14 were participated to this study. As physical fitness parameters, height, weight, body composition, body fat percentage,max-VO_2, muscle strength, flexibility and anaerobic power were measured. Furthermore, Bouchard Three-day Physical Activity Record test was used for determining physical activity level. SPSS program was used for statistical analyses.

Independent t test was used for testing differences between variables of boys’ and girls’. Correlation test was performed for identifying the relationship between these variables. If p< 0.005 was, there were significant differences between groups and variables.

As a result, it was found that boys’ Max-VO₂, hand grip strength and anaerobic power were higher performance than girls while girls’ flexibility and body fat density parameters were higher than boys. Moreover, there were increase in height, weight, max-VO_2, hand grip strength, and anaerobic power with age on both of girls and boys.