Contextual Factors and Motor Skills in Indigenous Amazon Forest and Urban Indigenous Children

Abstract

This study investigated the contextual factors, motor performance, and body mass index across indigenous land children, indigenous urban children, and non-indigenous urban children. A number of 153 children, both sexes (71 girls, 46.4%), from 8 to 10 years were assessed. The Test of Motor Gross Development-3 was utilized. Indigenous land children showed higher motor performance ( $\eta {{}^2}_{\rho }$ = 0.37 and $\eta {{}^2}_{\rho }$ = 0.19 locomotor and object control, respectively) than indigenous urban children (p < 0.03) and non-indigenous urban children (p < 0.01); Indigenous urban children showed higher motor performance than non-indigenous urban children (p < 0.01). Body mass index was similar across groups ( $\eta {{}^2}_{\rho }$ = 0,02; p = 0.15). Motor performance of indigenous land children was explained by the contextual factors that lead to a more active lifestyle, unsupervised free time, and play outside. In urban areas, behavior was similar, and although indigenous urban children kept some play tradition, it was not strong enough to be a protective factor for the motor performance.

Keywords: child development; children; ethnical groups; indigenous peoples; motor skills.

Figure 1

Brazilian map and the current Indigenous Lands in the Amazon Forest, Andirá-Marau Land, the geographic location of the Ponta Alegre village, and the city of Parintins–state of Amazonas.

Figure 2

Locomotor scores by group; ILC, Indigenous Land Children; IUC, Indigenous Urban Children; N-IUC, non-indigenous urban children. Significant differences: *ILC > IUC (p < 0.001) and N-IUC (p < 0.001), **IUC > N-IUC (p < 0.015), ***All boys > All girls (p < 0.001).

Figure 3

Object control scores by group; ILC, Indigenous Land Children; IUC, Indigenous Urban Children; N-IUC, non-indigenous urban children. Significant differences: *ILC > IUC (p = 0.019) and > N-IUC (p < 0.001), **IUC > N-IUC (p < 0.015), ***All boys > All girls (p < 0.001).