Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 5, 2026
Lower Limb Biomechanical Analysis of Healthy Participants
Published on: April 15, 2020
Postural Stability and Physical Fitness in Preschool Children: Associations with Lower-Limb Muscular Strength,
Andrés Godoy-Cumillaf1, Josivaldo de Souza-Lima2, Frano Giakoni-Ramírez2
1Grupo de Investigación en Educación Física, Salud y Calidad de Vida (EFISAL), Facultad de Educación, Universidad Autónoma de Chile, Temuco 4780000, Chile.
Insights
Postural stability in preschool children is linked to better lower-limb strength and cardiorespiratory fitness. This highlights the importance of balance for overall physical development in early childhood.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric motor development
- Exercise science
- Childhood physical fitness
Background:
- Postural stability is crucial for motor development in early childhood.
- Its relationship with specific physical fitness components in preschoolers is not well understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between postural stability and various physical fitness components in preschool children.
- To determine if postural stability is linked to lower-limb strength, speed/agility, cardiorespiratory fitness, and flexibility.
Main Methods:
- A cross-sectional study involving 134 preschool children.
- Physical fitness assessed via standing long jump, shuttle runs, and sit-and-reach test.
- Postural stability and object-control skills measured using the Movement Assessment Battery for Children-2.
Main Results:
- Greater postural stability showed a significant independent association with better lower-limb muscular strength and cardiorespiratory fitness.
- Associations with speed/agility and flexibility were not consistently significant across analyses.
- Sensitivity analyses confirmed the robustness of the link between postural stability, lower-limb strength, and cardiorespiratory fitness.
Conclusions:
- Postural stability is consistently associated with enhanced lower-limb muscular strength and cardiorespiratory fitness in young children.
- Findings suggest a connection between balance and key physical fitness elements in early childhood.
- Further longitudinal and intervention studies are recommended to explore causality and implications.
Abstract:
Background/Objectives: Postural stability is considered a key component of motor development during early childhood; however, its specific association with different components of physical fitness in preschool children remains insufficiently explored. This study aimed to evaluate the association between postural stability and physical fitness components in preschool children. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in 134 preschool children. Physical fitness was assessed through lower-limb muscular strength (standing long jump), speed/agility (4 × 10 m shuttle run), cardiorespiratory fitness (20 m shuttle run), and flexibility (sit-and-reach test). Object-control skills and postural stability were evaluated using selected tasks from the Movement Assessment Battery for Children-2. Composite indices were created for object-control skills and postural stability. Multiple linear regression analyses were performed adjusting for age, sex, body mass index (BMI), and object-control skills. Additional analyses included ANCOVA by postural stability tertiles and sensitivity analyses using HC3 robust standard errors, exclusion of influential observations, and bootstrap resampling. Results: Greater postural stability was independently associated with better lower-limb muscular strength (B = 9.49; 95% CI: 4.39-14.60; p ≤ 0.001) and cardiorespiratory fitness (B = 0.27; 95% CI: 0.06-0.49; p = 0.014). An association with speed/agility was observed in the primary model but lost statistical significance in sensitivity analyses. No significant association was found with flexibility. ANCOVA analyses confirmed significant differences across postural stability tertiles for lower-limb muscular strength (p = 0.033) and cardiorespiratory fitness (p = 0.011). Sensitivity analyses supported the robustness of the associations for lower-limb muscular strength and cardiorespiratory fitness. Conclusions: Greater postural stability was consistently associated with better lower-limb muscular strength and cardiorespiratory fitness in preschool children. These findings suggest that postural stability is associated with selected components of physical fitness during early childhood. Longitudinal and intervention studies are needed to clarify the direction and potential implications of these associations.
