Associations between Morphological Characteristics, Motor Abilities and Preparedness for School in Preschool Girls

Links between morphological characteristics (MC), motor abilities (MA) and psychological preparedness (PP) for school of preschool girls could help improve the quality of educational work for their teachers. The main goal of the study was to determine the correlation between three sets of data: MA, MC and PP. The randomized sample of preschool girls (N=127), aged 6-7, was examined. Fourteen MCs were measured. To measure MAs of the participants, 18 composite motor tests were adjusted for preschool children, three for each motor dimension: coordination, flexibility, strength, agility, accuracy and balance. Test for School Preparedness (TSS) with five subtests was used in estimating PP. The correlations between MC, MA and PP of preschool girls were determined by the use of both univariate and canonical correlations. The results revealed that all canonical correlations were statistically significant: between MC and MA, MA and PP, as well as MC and PP. However, in spite of its significance, canonical correlation was lowest between MC and PP. One of the hypotheses in explaining this relationship could be the speed of maturity, which is different for preschool girls and boys.