2005 年 1 巻 p. 22-38
The purpose of this study was to measure physical fitness, motor ability, exercise habits, and exercise or sports experience in youth through a number of tests and to verify the causal relation between the constructs. The subjects in this study were 2,856 high school students comprising 1,626 males and 1,230 females. Eight items used in the Japan Fitness Test were measured for physical fitness and sixty-one items of exercise attainment were self-rated by the subjects according to three ranks for motor ability. The time spent on exercise and the frequencies of exercise were measured for exercise habit, and the numbers of sports events and days spent on exercises were measured for sports experience. The study was conducted using structure equation modeling. The results showed that exercise or sports experience directly and indirectly through exercise habit affected physical fitness and motor ability, and that exercise or sports experience more strongly affected exercise habit than physical fitness and motor ability. It is also suggested that exercise habit had a stronger effect on physical fitness than on motor ability, and that sports experience had a stronger effect on motor ability than on physical fitness. Consequently, the comparison of causal model goodness of fit in respective genders did not result in indications of significant differences between genders.
