Assessing the usefulness of the Little Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire-Chinese in Chinese preschoolers: a sex-and age-specific analysis

Jing Hua; Tanya Rihtman; Yongmei Peng; Tianjing Wang; Yuantao Su; Wenchong Du

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1321342

Assessing the usefulness of the Little Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire-Chinese in Chinese preschoolers: a sex-and age-specific analysis

Front Psychol. 2024 Jan 30:15:1321342. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1321342. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Jing Hua^#^{1

2}, Tanya Rihtman^#³, Yongmei Peng^#⁴, Tianjing Wang⁵, Yuantao Su¹, Wenchong Du⁶

Affiliations

¹ The Women's and Children's Health Care Department of Shanghai First Maternity and Infant Hospital, School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai, China.
² Shanghai Key Laboratory of Maternal Fetal Medicine, Shanghai First Maternity and Infant Hospital, School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai, China.
³ Department of Sport, Health Sciences and Social Work, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, United Kingdom.
⁴ Shanghai Center for Women and Children's Health, Shanghai, China.
⁵ School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai, China.
⁶ NTU Psychology, School of Social Sciences, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United Kingdom.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Aim: This study evaluated the sex-and age-specific usefulness of the Little Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire-Chinese (LDCDQ-CH) in Chinese preschoolers.

Method: A population-based sample of 51,110 children aged 3-5 years was recruited. Internal reliability, construct validity, concurrent validity with the Ages and Stages Questionnaire-third edition (ASQ-3), and discriminant validity with the Movement Assessment Battery for Children-second edition (MABC-2) were assessed. Age and sex effects on LDCDQ-CH scores were analyzed using ANOVA and t-tests.

Results: The LDCDQ-CH exhibited excellent internal consistency and reliability across ages and genders. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the 15-item model's satisfactory fit. Positive and significant correlations were observed between LDCDQ-CH and ASQ-3 scores, indicating robust concurrent validity. Significant associations were found between LDCDQ-CH and MABC-2 scores. Higher scores were observed in older children and girls, indicating age- and sex-related differences in motor functional performance.

Conclusion: The LDCDQ-CH is a reliable and valid tool to support early identification of motor coordination difficulty in Chinese preschoolers, and guiding interventions. Findings support its use across ages and genders, highlighting its potential in the Chinese context. Age- and sex-specific norms are needed for enhanced clinical applicability.

Keywords: Chinese children; LDCDQ; developmental coordination disorder; early identification; motor coordination difficulty; preschoolers; reliability; validity.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81673179), the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (21DZ2202000), Shanghai Municipal Health Commission (2020YJZX0213), Pudong Municipal Health Commission (PW2020D-11).