O8-7 Do physical activity, motor skills, and attention capacities predict the academic achievement of primary school children from disadvantaged neighbourhoods? Elaboration of inference conditional trees
Résumé
Background
In the 6-10 year period, physical activity (PA) and motor skills
have a positive impact on cognitive development, which in
turn act on academic performance. In order to better
understand these links, a study was conducted to explore
these relationships for disadvantaged children between the ages
of 6 and 10.
Methods
Children from two primary schools located in a disadvantaged
neighbourhood (Tarbes, France) participated in the study.
Variables were measured at 5 measurement times over 3
academic school years (2016; 2017; 2018). PA was measured by
accelerometry over the whole day and weekend (MVPAF,
MVPAWF). Motor skills were also assessed with a shuttle run test (NAV), a standing broad jump test (SBJ) and a tapping test
(TT). A cardiorespiratory Shuttle Run test 20m (AR) was also
carried out. Attentional capacities were measured with a
computer-based Flanker Task: the Total Reaction Rime (RTT)
of the correct answers (ms) for each child was collected. Finally,
the children’s score academic performance in French Language
and Mathematics were collected. To study the relationships
between the different variables, conditional inference trees
including all these variables were performed with R software.
Two trees were generated having as target variables respectively
French language (FR) and Mathematics (MAT).
Results
French language (FR) was predicted first by the age of the
children (p > 0.001), but as well for the youngest and the oldest
chidldren, FR was predicted by performance on the TT
(p > 0.001) and RTT (p > 0.001): the children who perform
better on the TT test and have a lower RTT are those who
obtain the best results in French language. Mathematics
(MAT) was explained by these same variables as for FR
(p > 0.001). The evaluation of these two conditional inference
tree by the Pseudo R-square were respectively 0.13 and 0.11.
Discussion
These two conditional inference trees revealed that French
language and Mathematics were predicted by attentional
capacities (RTT), by motor variables (TT, NAV and SBJ).
Finally, these models obtained were non-linear, complex and
highlight different profiles of children. Although these
relationships are documented in the literature (Diamond,
2002), this study confirms this from a longitudinal perspective,
which is rarely used.