Reliability and validity of dexterity circuits in the "Alfabetizzazione Motoria" project

"Alfabetizzazione Motoria" is a national project involving primary school students, carried out jointly be the Ministry of Education Universities and Research and the Italian Olympic Committee, with the purpose of promoting and transmitting the importance of practicing sport. The project involves a monitoring program based on 5 dexterity circuits, one for each primary school class. The purpose of this study was to assess the reliability and validity of such dexterity circuits. Data were collected in March (T1) and in May (T2) in two primary schools: Casalecchio di Reno (10 classess, 178 children), and Zola Predosa (6 classess, 135 children). In the second school, a test-retest procedure was carried out both in at T1 and T2, with the circuits repeated two times in the same day. The subjects were filmed while executing the circuit, and an a-posteriori evaluation was carried out concerning the total time required to perform the circuit, the time needed to execute different motor tasks included in the circuit, and the number of errors in each section. Analysis of variance and Cronbach's Alpha were used to assess the reliability. Principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis were used to analyze the internal consistency of each circuit. The Alpha coefficient ranged from 0.6 and 0.9 in the different trials of the circuits, showing a sufficient to good reliability for all the classes. However, the differences between trials were always statistically signficiant, even when the tests were repeated two times in the same session. This leads to hypothesize the presence of a learning effect involving short-term improvements. This hypothesis is confirmed especially in the fifth class, in which the improvement throughout the four trials is much more evident than in the other classes. The multivariate statistical analysis allowed to evaluate which sections of the circuits provided the most relevant contribution to the total time. The balance, slalom, and hurdles sections were the most related with the overall performance. This was evident in all the classes with the exception of the fourth. In all the circuits, the highest difficulties were noticed in the balance and hurdles sections that strongly affected the total time. This was confirmed by the analysis of errors, actually showing the highest number in those sections. Four error types only concerning the balance section negatively affected the performance. In the other cases it would be worth to insert a time penalty because making an error allows to gain time, as shown in the balance section of second classess both in March and May. Factor analyses showed that the balance sections are the most important in determining the final result both in a positive and negative direction. This kind of studies allows to perform more accurate and valid assessments.