The Relationship Between Children's Actual and Perceived Motor Competence: A Person-Centered Approach Based on Multiple Measurement Instruments

Objective: To investigate 1) whether different profiles reflect children’s levels of actual and perceived motor competence (AMC; PMC) using a person-centered approach, and 2) whether the same profiles could be identified based on different assessments of both constructs (i.e., AMC: process & product measurement; PMC: specific skill & general athletic competence). Methods: Four hundred forty 9- to 14-year-old children (53.9% boys) their AMC was measured using the process-oriented Test of Gross Motor Development-2 (TGMD-2) and the product-oriented Korperkoordinationstest fur Kinder (KTK). The Physical Self-Confidence Scale (PSCS; perceived competence in 15 motor skills) and the athletic competence subscale of the Self-Perception Profile for Children (SPCC, perceived athletic competence) were used to measure PMC. Two separate cluster analyses (CA) were conducted to identify different profiles. The first CA (CA1) combined two optimally aligned instruments of AMC and PMC: the TGMD-2 and PSCS. The second CA (CA2) combined two mediocrely aligned instruments: the KTK and SPCC. Results: In both analyses, the five-cluster solution was found to be the best fit for the data (CA1: Cohen’s Kappa (K)=.67, R2 (AMC)=76.4%, R2 (PMC)=64.3%, CA2: K=.83, R2 (AMC)=65.9%, R2 (PMC)=78.4%). In both five-cluster solutions two groups were characterized by similar, relatively high or low levels of both AMC and PMC (i.e., low-low & high-high). In addition, two groups were characterized by divergent levels of AMC and PMC (i.e. low-high & high-low). The fifth group was different in both cluster solutions. Where CA1 revealed an additional low-high profile, CA2 revealed an extra high-high profile. Conclusion: It can be concluded that the choice of measurement impacts the relationship between AMC and PMC. Therefore, future research should explore whether associations will be stronger when the used AMC instrument aligns with the PMC measurement. In addition, these findings show that both the type of measuring instrument and the alignment between AMC and PMC have an influence on the results.