Are there any relationships between maturity and static and dynamic balance in school-aged boys and girls?

Major morphological and neural changes occur with growth and maturation and little attention has been paid to differences in youth maturity in functional movements performing. Little research has been done on balance and its relation to maturity, so the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between maturity and static and dynamic balance in school-aged boys and girls.

The statistical sample included 700 school-aged, 9-18 year old, boys and girls from Shahrekord categorized into 10 groups of 35 girls and 10 groups of 35 boys. To evaluate maturity, the maturity offset prediction equations and to evaluate static and dynamic balance the balance error scoring system and Y balance test were used. For analyzing the finding of this research, Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient test was used (P≤0.05).

Spearman correlation test showed a significant correlation between predictive maturity offset with balance error scoring system (r=-/138, p < 0.001) and Y balance test (r=-/232, p < 0.001). Also, there was a significant correlation between maturity offset with balance error scoring system and Y balance test in boys and girls (p < 0.05).

The findings of this research can be found that there was with balance error scoring system and Y balance test in school-aged children and realizing about relations between maturity and balance can be used for planning exercises and improvement in performance should be considered as a goal and some research can be done on the causes of these differences.