THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHILDRENS PERCEIVED AND ACTUAL MOTOR COMPETENCE

To examine the relationship between children's perceived and actual mo tor competence, 218 children between the ages of 9 and 11 years indivi dually completed the Motor Skill Perceived Competence Scale. After com pleting the scale, the subject's actual motor competence was measured on a series of gross motor tests. Incomplete principal component analy sis identified two actual motor competence dimensions from the motor t est battery. The two factors included a lower-body and an upper-body f actor of actual motor competence. A two-factor analysis of variance in dicated that the boys and girls differed in perceived competence and a ctual competence. The boys showed higher perceived competence and actu al motor competence. In addition, the 9-, 10-, and 11-year-old age gro ups differed from each other on the lower-body factor of actual motor competence. As age increased, lower-body competence increased. Regress ion analysis indicated that actual and perceived motor competence was moderately correlated. Adding age to the multiple regression model sig nificantly increased the multiple correlation. Adding gender to the mo del did not increase the correlation, showing that perceived competenc e was a function of actual motor competence and age, and this finding held for boys and girls. These findings showed that 9-, 10-, and 11-yr .-old children can assess personal motor competence. However, practiti oners should attempt to understand children's perceived competence giv en that their assessments are not extremely accurate.