Motor literacy and executive functions in upper elementary school students from the province of Talca
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v80.118564Keywords:
SEMOK, Cognition, Physical Education, EFECO, ChileAbstract
Introduction: Motor literacy and executive functions are key components of students’ integral development, linking physical and cognitive dimensions. Evidence in Chilean school contexts remains limited.
Objective: To analyze the levels of motor literacy and executive functions and to compare differences according to sex in upper elementary school students from the province of Talca.
Methodology: A cross-sectional observational, descriptive, and comparative study was conducted with 103 students (67 boys and 36 girls; mean age = 12.8 ± 0.76 years). Motor literacy was assessed using the SEMOK questionnaire, and executive functions with the EFECO. Descriptive statistics and Student’s t-test for independent samples were applied, complemented by Cohen’s d effect size (p < 0.05).
Results: Students showed moderate levels of motor literacy (M = 9.31 ± 4.74) and executive functions (M = 71.15 ± 39.11). Higher scores were observed in object control, initiative, and working memory. Significant differences were found only in body control (p = 0.006; d = 0.57), with girls outperforming boys.
Discussion: The findings indicate intermediate development in both variables, with minimal sex differences. The advantage observed in body control among girls may be associated with sociocultural and pedagogical factors influencing motor development.
Conclusions: Students presented moderate levels of motor literacy and executive functions, highlighting the need to strengthen Physical Education strategies that integrate motor and cognitive development.
References
Andrades-Suárez, K., Faúndez-Casanova, C., Carreño-Cariceo, J., López-Tapia, M., Sobarzo-Espinoza, F., Valderrama-Ponce, C., Villar-Cavieres, N., Castillo-Retamal, F., & Westphal, G. (2022). Relación entre actividad física, rendimiento académico y funciones ejecutivas en adolescentes: Una revi-sión sistemática. Revista Ciencias De La Actividad Física UCM, 23(2), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.29035/rcaf.23.2.10
Arroyo, M., Miguel, P., Pinilla, N., & Ramos, J. (2024). Alfabetización física y salud mental: asociaciones en alumnos de educación física de primaria y secundaria. Retos: nuevas tendencias en educa-ción física, deporte y recreación, (55), 581–587. https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v55.104142
Bernate, J., Fonseca, I., & Betancourt, M. (2020). Impacto de la actividad física y la práctica deportiva en el contexto social de la educación superior. Retos: nuevas tendencias en educación física, depor-te y recreación, (37), 742-747. https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v37i37.67875.
Castillo-Retamal, M., Oróstegui-Carvallo, M., Peñailillo-Espinoza, Y., Rojas-Rivas, S., Vega-Rojas, C., Ore-llana-Rojas, E., & Soto-Medel, K. (2024). Nivel de conocimiento y aplicación de la alfabetización física entre profesores de Educación Física del Centro-Sur de Chile (Level of knowledge and ap-plication of physical literacy among Physical Education teachers in Central-Southern Chile). Re-tos, 59, 411-418. https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v59.103661
Cárcamo-Oyarzun, J., Herrmann, C., Gerlach, E., Salvo-Garrido, S., & Estevan, I. (2020). Association be-tween actual and perceived motor competence in schoolchildren. International Journal of Envi-ronmental Research and Public Health, 17(9), 3408. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17103408
Diamond, A. (2013). Executive functions. Annual Review of Psychology, 64(1), 135–168. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-113011-143750
Faúndez-Casanova, C., Letelier, B., Muñoz, M., Pino, C., Plaza, P., Silva, L., & Castillo-Retamal, F. (2023). Conducta sedentaria, nivel de actividad física y desarrollo de las funciones ejecutivas en estu-diantes durante Covid-19 en Chile: un estudio piloto (Sedentary behavior, physical activity level and executive function development in students during Covid-19 in Chile: a pilot estudy). Retos, 47, 221-227. https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v47.90598.
Fierro Saldaña, B. (2025). Resultados de la Encuesta Nacional de Actividad Física y Deporte: una opor-tunidad para fortalecer el bienestar integral en Chile. CIPER Chile. https://www.ciperchile.cl/2025/05/24/resultados-de-la-encuesta-nacional-de-actividad-fisica-y-deporte-una-oportunidad-para-fortalecer-el-bienestar-integral-en-chile/
García-Gómez, A. (2015). Desarrollo y validación de un cuestionario de observación para la evaluación de las funciones ejecutivas en la infancia. Revista Intercontinental de Psicología y Educación 17 (1), 141-162. https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=6531816
Gross, J. (2015). Emotion regulation: Current status and future prospects. Psychological Inquiry, 26(1), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/1047840X.2014.940781
Guzmán-Muñoz, E., Mendez-Rebolledo, G., Concha-Cisternas, Y., Alarcón-Rivera, M., & Faúndez-Casanova, C. (2025). Diseños de investigación cuantitativa en ciencias de la actividad física y la salud. Revista Ciencias De La Actividad Física UCM, 26(2), 63-85. https://doi.org/10.29035/rcaf.26.2.5
Herrmann, C., & Seelig, H. (2017). Cuestionario SEMOK (Selbstwahrnehmung motorischer Kompeten-zen) [Instrumento de evaluación]. https://www.mobak.cl
Keegan, R., Barnett, L., Dudley, D., Telford, R., Lubans, D., Bryant, A., Roberts, W., Morgan, P., Schranz, N., Weissensteiner, J., Vella, S., Salmon, J., Ziviani, J., Okely, A., Wainwright, N., & Evans, J. (2019). Defining Physical Literacy for Application in Australia: A Modified Delphi Method. Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, 38(2), 105-118. https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/jtpe/38/2/article-p105.xml
López-Martín, E., & Ardura, D. (2023). El tamaño del efecto en la publicación científica. Educación XX1,26(1) https://doi.org/10.5944/educxx1.36276
Macias Giler, Y. (2025). Importancia de la educación física en el desarrollo integral del estudiante de educación general básica. Revista Científica De Innovación Educativa y Sociedad Actual. “AL-CON”, 5(3), 310-322 https://doi.org/10.62305/alcon.v5i3.598
Martínez, J., Royuela, C., Massó, X., & Torres, I. (2024). Efectos de la actividad física durante las clases sobre la alfabetización motriz: una revisión sistemática. Retos: nuevas tendencias en educación física, deporte y recreación, (52), 311-322. https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v52.100143
Martin-Martínez, I., Chirosa-Ríos, L., Reigal-Garrido, R., Hernández-Mendo, A., Juárez-Ruiz-de-Mier, R., & Guisado-Barrilao, R. (2015). Efectos de la actividad física sobre las funciones ejecutivas en una muestra de adolescentes. Anales de psicología, 31(3), 962-971. https://doi.org/10.6018/analesps.31.3.171601
Ministerio de Educación (2015). Bases Curriculares 7° básico a 2° medio. Ministerio de Educación. 1-397. https://www.curriculumnacional.cl/sites/default/files/newtenberg/614/articles-37136_bases.pdf
Ministerio del Deporte de Chile. (2024). Informe ejecutivo Encuesta Nacional de Actividad Física y De-porte 2024 en población mayor de 5 años. https://page-min-dep.s3.amazonaws.com/sigi/files/21783_informe_ejecutivo_encuesta_nacional_de_actividad_f_sica_y_deporte_2024.pdf
Organización Mundial de la Salud [WHO]. (2023). Directrices sobre actividad física, comportamiento sedentario y sueño para niños y adolescentes. OMS. https://www.who.int/publications
Reloba, S., Chirosa, L., & Reigal, R. (2016). Relación entre actividad física, procesos cognitivos y rendi-miento académico de escolares: revisión de la literatura actual. Revista andaluza de medicina del deporte, 9(4), 166-172. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ramd.2015.05.008
Whitehead, M. (2019). Physical Literacy across the World. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203702697
World Medical Association. (2024). WMA Declaration of Helsinki – Ethical principles for medical re-search involving human subjects. https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki/
Zelazo, P. D. (2020). Executive function: Reflection, iterative reprocessing, complexity, and the devel-oping brain. Developmental Review, 55, 100869.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2019.100869
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Maximiliano Vásquez-Morales, Donkan Bernal-Galvez, Francisco Leppe-Iturra, Fabian Cabrera-Soto, Franklin Castillo-Retamal, César Faúndez-Casanova
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and ensure the magazine the right to be the first publication of the work as licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of authorship of the work and the initial publication in this magazine.
- Authors can establish separate additional agreements for non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work published in the journal (eg, to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
- Is allowed and authors are encouraged to disseminate their work electronically (eg, in institutional repositories or on their own website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as to a subpoena more Early and more of published work (See The Effect of Open Access) (in English).
This journal provides immediate open access to its content (BOAI, http://legacy.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/boaifaq.htm#openaccess) on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. The authors may download the papers from the journal website, or will be provided with the PDF version of the article via e-mail.
