Effects of modern dance programs on improving health-related physical fitness in girls.

Introduction: As creative physical activity influences many aspects of child development-including physical, social, and emotional wellbeing-the effects of two experimental modern dance programs on the development of health-related physical fitness in young school-aged girls were assessed in this longitudinal study.

Materials And Methods: The study sample comprised 203 girls aged 7-11 years, 102 of whom (the control group) were recruited from the elementary school "Vuk Karadžić" from Bačka Palanka, while Experimental Group 1 ( = 51) and Experimental Group 2 ( = 50) respectively consisted of girls who have been involved in a modern dance program for no longer than 1 year and at least 2 years. The participants were also divided into AGE 1 (7-9 years,  = 103) and AGE 2 (9-11 years,  = 100) groups to assess the influence of age on the treatment effect.

Measuring handgrip strength in school children: inter-instrument reliability between Takei and Jamar.

The aim of this study was to determine inter-instrument reliability between Takei and Jamar dynamometers in school children. Fifty-six five grade participants aged eleven to twelve (n = 32 boys, n = 24 girls) performed handgrip strength test on two different occasions, with a 5-day gap between them, as test-retest. The Pearson correlation coefficient showed very large to almost perfect correlation between both devices (r = 0.