Age and gender differences in motor creativity among Italian elementary school children

Motor creativity was investigated in 87 Italian 6-8 year-old children (42 girls and 45 boys). The Bertsch test on Motor Creativity (Bertsch, 1983) was used. This test assesses motor creativity in four tasks (hoop, ball, bench and floor). For each task, motor creativity scores were obtained by aggregating scores assigned to children's observed motor performances on three dimensions (fluency, flexibility and originality). Overall, results indicated that children displayed greater creativity in tasks that are based on global motor processes (bench and floor) than in tasks that are based on fine manipulation and co-ordination processes (hoop and ball). Results also showed that there were age and gender differences in motor creativity in the latter type of tasks. In the ball task, boys tended to be more creative than girls, and motor creativity increased significantly with age in both gender groups. In the hoop task, motor creativity clearly increased with age among girls, whereas the pattern was opposite among boys. Findings are discussed for their implications on the relations linking motor creativity, motor development, and cultural differences across gender groups.