Abstract
Motor coordination impairments frequently co-occur with other developmental disorders and mental health problems in clinically referred populations. But does this reflect a broader dimensional relationship within the general population? A clearer understanding of this relationship might inform improvements in mental health service provision. However, ascertainment and referral bias means that there is limited value in conducting further research with clinically referred samples. We, therefore, conducted a cross-sectional population-based study investigating children's manual coordination using an objective computerised test. These measures were related to teacher-completed responses on a behavioural screening questionnaire [the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ)]. We sampled 298 children (4-11 years old; 136 males) recruited from the general population. Hierarchical (logistic and linear) regression modelling indicated significant categorical and continuous relationships between manual coordination and overall SDQ score (a dimensional measure of psychopathology). Even after controlling for gender and age, manual coordination explained 15 % of the variance in total SDQ score. This dropped to 9 % after exclusion of participants whose SDQ responses indicated potential mental health problems. These results: (1) indicate that there is a clear relationship between children's motor and mental health development in community-based samples; (2) demonstrate the relationship's dimensional nature; and (3) have implications for service provision.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 283-295 |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| Journal | European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry |
| Volume | 25 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| Early online date | 3 Jul 2015 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Mar 2016 |
Bibliographical note
AcknowledgmentsThe first and sixth author of this paper are part of the Healthy Children, Healthy Families Theme of the NIHR CLAHRC Yorkshire and Humber. The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, the National Institute for Health Research or the Department of Health.
This research was also supported by an MRC Early Career Development Award, awarded to the first author, and a grant from the Waterloo Foundation (TWF reference: 1285/1986). Lastly the authors would also like to thank Jacklyn Smith for her help with data collection.
Keywords
- psychomotor disorders
- developmental disorders
- motor skills
- child behaviour
- cross-sectional studies
- community psychiatry
Access to Document
- The relationship between manual coordination and mental health
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.