Exploring sociodemographic influences upon sensorimotor control across childhood using kinematic analyses

Sensorimotor control is pivotal in children’s development, allowing them to learn, explore and play. There are many factors within the external environment influencing children’s sensorimotor development. The present thesis aimed to study the impact of ethnicity and socioeconomic position on sensorimotor control in childhood, using kinematic analyses, and how to improve the measurement of such constructs. Chapter 2 derived a latent measure of socioeconomic circumstances which was sensitive to ethnic differences to use in subsequent analyses. Chapters 3 and 4 used Principal Components Analysis and Confirmatory Factor Analysis, respectively, to reduce the plethora of kinematic indices produced by the Clinical-Kinematic Assessment Tool and determine the theoretical constructs that best underpin sensorimotor control. These analyses found that the many hundreds of individual kinematic data points could be reduced to a substantially smaller number of sensorimotor components. Chapter 5 is a two-part study exploring the relationship between ethnicity, socioeconomic circumstances and sensorimotor control in early childhood and how these relationships compare when using conventional variables versus the more novel latent measures derived in Chapters 2-4. Overall, the analyses demonstrate that White British children’s performance was superior to their British-born Pakistani peers even after controlling for socioeconomic factors. Additionally, latent measures of sensorimotor control were better predictors compared to conventional variables, suggesting these measures offer a more accurate reflection of performance and circumstances. Lastly, Chapter 6 explored whether the ethnic differences found in Chapter 5 persisted into mid-childhood and studied how children’s sensorimotor control developed across these two timepoints. Results demonstrated that early ethnic differences in sensorimotor control reduced by mid-childhood. In summary, this thesis adds to the sparse literature on how a child’s ethnicity and their resulting environment can influence sensorimotor control, and also how this relationship changes over time. It also highlights that empirically derived latent measures may be more accurate and appropriate.