Livingstone, S., Mason, C.A., Tu, S., Nightingale, C.J., Lehnhard, R.A., and Butterfield, S.A. (2021). Biological indicators of aerobic capacity in children ages 6-16. International Journal of Physical Education, 8(1), 3-8.
Purpose: Secular trends related to height (plateauing) and weight (increasing) indicates a need for current data related to children’s aerobic capacity.
Methods: In the present study, biological indicators (age, sex, Body Mass Index, and maturation) of aerobic capacity were examined in children ages 6-16. All children were tested on the Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run (PACER) during regular physical education class.
Results: Results indicate that body mass, age, sex and maturation all contributed to PACER performance and, thus, aerobic capacity. As hypothesized, chronological age was positively correlated with PACER score. In terms of sex differences, at age sixteen, both boys and girls recorded their highest respective mean PACER scores, with girls at 38.04, 20-meter lengths and boys achieving 65.43 lengths.
Conclusion: Regardless of sex differences, as BMI increased, PACER scores dropped. In the present study, maturation offset had a negative association with increasing age, but to a lesser extent in boys than girls.