The effect of gender and ethnic differences on the success of intervention programmes for the motor proficiency and self-concept of 7-9 year old DCD children

Abstract

More boys than girls are diagnosed with DCD (Maldonadoo-Duran, 2002), while
boys have a higher global (Davies & Brember, 1999) and physical self-concept
(Crocker et al., 2000) than girls. However, no literature exists with regard to ethical
differences. Teachers identified 201 potential DCD candidates. The Movement
Assessment Battery for Children (Henderson & Sugden, 1992) identified 58 with
DCD (36 boys and 22 girls). The Tennessee Self-Concept Scale (Child Form) (Fitts
& Warren, 1996) and Child Anxiety Scale (Gillis, 1980) were administered to
determine the children's self-concept and anxiety respectively. A four-group pretestposttest,
with two follow-up tests was used. Children were randomly grouped into
experimental groups (motor based intervention, self-concept enhancing intervention,
integrated psycho-motor intervention and control group). A repeated measures
ANOVA was used to determine interactions within the groups, independent t-tests to
determine gender differences and a one-way ANOVA to determine differences
between the ethnic groups. The self-concept of the girls in the psychological group
improved moderately significantly (p=0.09) more than that of the boys, while the
white children's motor proficiency (motor based intervention group) improved
significantly more than the black children's. These differences were, however, not
large enough to justify different intervention programmes for different ethnic groups
and genders.

Keywords: Gender; Ethnic; Race; Children; DCD.

South African Journal for Research in Sport, Physical Education and Recreation Vol. 29 (1) 2007: pp. 113-128