Investigating the Relationship Between the Amount of Physical Activity and Developmental Disorders of Children and Adolescents Aged 7 to 15 Years Living in Hamedan City, Iran

The developmental and social changes between the ages of 7 and 15 are very prominent. In this period, the possibility of developmental and mental disorders is also high. Typically, physical activity is introduced as a low–cost and effective method to help with developmental disabilities. Physical activity has many positive effects on physical and mental health. It has been estimated that about 80% of teenagers do not do enough physical activity. Overall, this study provides a comprehensive and gestalt view of middle childhood and pre–adolescence developmental disabilities regarding the amount of physical activity. Finally, considering the conflicting results regarding the Relationship between the amount of physical activity and the developmental disabilities of children and adolescents, we examined the Relationship between the amount of physical activity and developmental disorders in 7– to 15–years–old children and adolescents living in Hamedan City, Iran.

This was the correlational description study. The data of this study were collected using a cross–sectional method in the community of healthy school–aged children from March to May 2021. The Research Ethics Committee of the Sports Sciences Research Institute reviewed the research. It was approved according to compliance with Ethical Standards in Research of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, with the code IR.SSRI.REC.1401.1923. The inclusion criteria were as follows: age range between 7 and 15 years, not suffering from neurodevelopmental disorders such as attention–deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism, and developmental coordination disorder, not suffering from sensory and skeletal and muscular defects, and being willing to participate in the study. The exclusion criterion was not answering all the questions in the questionnaires. Questionnaires were designed online and were made available to parents. The participants were invited to participate in the study by advertising in social network groups, verbal advertising, and cultural centers. A total of 177 parents of individuals aged 7 to 15 years participated in this study. Data were collected using the International Physical Activity (Crocker et al., 1997) and Five to Fifteen Questionnaire (FTF)–Parent's Form (Kadesjö et al., 2004). Data was analyzed using the Pearson correlation coefficient in SPSS version 26 software. A significance level of lower than 0.05 was considered for all tests.

The results showed no significant relationship between physical activity and motor skills development disorder, perception disorder, language and verbal communication disorder, memory disorder, learning disorder, social skills, and emotional problems (p>0.05). However, the results showed a negative and significant relationship between the duration of physical activity and executive dysfunction (r= – 0.143, p=0.040).

According to the findings, duration of physical activity has a negative and significant relationship with children's executive function disorder. Therefore, it is recommended that parents and teachers strengthen the conditions of physical activity based on the needs of children's executive function so that ultimately, executive function, which is a high–level cognitive skill, can be strengthened for the child's success in life and all its aspects.