Relationship between motor abilities, intelligence, and social-emotional behavior in preschoolers: A pilot study

The development of social-emotional competence is strongly associated with delinquency, school readiness/school success, as well as mental and physical health. Despite these empirical facts, the number of deviant preschoolers in Germany is relatively high. As the extent and intensity of an appropriate quantity and quality of physical activity is crucial for the general development of preschoolers, motor intervention is supposed to contribute to prevention of social-emotional problem behavior. However, the marginal empirical findings can be clearly stated to be a desideratum. The article is based on the data of the BeBi sample and presents first cross-sectional findings using hierarchical regression and an univariate procedure. The results show gender-related differences at the expense of boys. Specifically, the low motor performers show deviant social-emotional behavior. Motor abilities are only poorly correlated with social-emotional behaviour, but the association with the IQ is much stronger. Working-memory tends to be the actual predictor in a hierarchical regression model.