Comparison of Motor Skills of Children of 7 to 9 Years of Iranian Ethniciy: A Cross-Cultural Study

Although motor development is influenced by development and maturity, environmental and cultural conditions affect it. The purpose of this study was to compare cross-cultural manipulation skills of children Iranian ethnicity.

Samples consisted of 240 (120 girls, 120 boys) children aged 7 to 9 years in the provinces of Tehran, Lorestan, Khuzestan and Kurdistan. The Ulrich motor development Test (2000) was used to measure the motor skills of manipulation.

The results of multivariate analysis of variance showed that the main effect of province on manipulation skills was significant. In the total score of manipulation, children scores of Lorestan province were significantly higher than children of Khuzestan (P = 0.001) and children of Kurdistan province gained more points than Lorestan children (P = 0.001) But there was no significant difference between the other provinces. Also, gender and province interaction were significant only in the component of rolling, so that male children in Lorestan and Khuzestan provinces had significantly higher scores than female children (P = 0.001).

According to the findings, it seems that different modes of motor development can be the result of cultural differences and social environment of children, and different attitudes of families to physical activity.