Background Anxiety and movement consistency both influence movement in individuals with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD). Aims. This study investigated the influence of anxiety, self-efficacy, resilience and movement variability on perceptions and actions of adults with and without DCD. Methods. 17 adults with DCD and 17 adults with typical motor skills (TMS) (age and sex-matched) completed a questionnaire and three experimental tasks: two perceptual judgement tasks (static and dynamic conditions), and an executed action task involving judging and walking through different-sized gaps between doors. Results. No significant relationships were detected between general or movement-specific anxiety, self-efficacy or resilience and perceptual judgement or movement behaviour; however, movement consistency did significantly relate to movement execution in both groups. Correlations showed adults with DCD with lower movement-specific self-efficacy left bigger safety margins, and indicated stronger links between perception and action in TMS adults. In the adults with DCD there was no significant correlation between the point of behaviour change (critical ratio) in the perceptual judgement and executed action tasks, suggesting a less smoothly linked perception-action cycle than in the TMS adults. Conclusions and implications. Results highlight the importance of movement variability and motor control in the movement behaviour of adults with DCD, while illustrating the importance of studying perception and action together, especially when comparing populations, to elucidate how these may be constrained differently by individual-, task- and environmental-based constraints.
Harris, Sophie Rathbone, Clare J. Wilmut, Kate
School of Psychology, Social Work and Public Health
Year of publication: 2025Date of RADAR deposit: 2025-01-29