Relationships between Maturity and Flexibility in School-Aged Children

Maturity involves physical and psychological changes that happen sequentially and maturity status should be considered in all the studies that aim to assess the physiological process in children. Flexibility is one of the most important indicators of physical fitness in children that are likely to be affected by maturity. The aim of the present research was to examine the relationship between maturity and flexibility in school-aged boys and girls.

The statistical sample included 700 school-aged, 9-18 year old, boys and girls from Shahrekord city categorized into 10 groups of 35 girls and 10 groups of 35 boys. To evaluate maturity, predictive maturity offset, and to assess flexibility, sit and reach test and knee to wall test were used. For data analysis, the Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient test was used (P≤0.05).

Spearman correlation test showed a significant correlation between predictive maturity offset and sit and reach test (r=0.162, P<0.001) and knee to wall test (r=/280, P<0.001). Also, there was a significant correlation between maturity offset and sit and reach test in boys (r=0.368, P<0.001) and girls (r=-0.162, P<0.01), and knee to wall test in boys (r=0.284, P<0.001) and girls (r=0.302, P<0.001).

The findings showed that there was a significant correlation between predictive maturity offset and sit and reach test and knee to wall test. Therefore, realizing what changes may occur to flexibility on the maturation process can be considered as a goal for planning exercises; further research can be conducted on the causes of these differences.