The Effect of Residence Area on Motor Skill Development among Children

Environmental influences such as residence effect on athletic talent identification and development have become an interest topic for sport scientists. Residence effects occur when being live in a certain city size leads to participation or performance advantages, typically for those live in smaller or mid-sized cities. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of the child's residence area on child's motor development. A total 928 boys (aged 7.36 ± 0.29 year) and 1093 girls (aged 7.37 ± 0.29 year) was randomly selected from 215 primary schools in Selangor, Malaysia. With respect to their type of residence area, 110 schools located in urban area and 115 schools located in rural area. They were tested on the two anthropometric measurement (weight and height) and four motor subscales (power, flexibility, speed and coordination). Result showed that children from urban area tends to have higher anthropometrics and better motor skill development. It also suggested that child’ residence structure plays an important role in motor skill development, and that these structures are influenced by certain city-sized and people lifestyle.