The ACDsi – The analysis of Children’s Development in Slovenia

Research project Analysis of development trends of children and youth in Slovenia (ACDSi) is a cross-sectional study, which has been running at least every 10 years, since 1970 (1983, 1993/4, 2003/4, 2013/2014, 2016/17) and is one of the oldest secular trends in research of physical fitness in the world.

ACDSi is running the leading research institution, the Faculty of Sport from University of Ljubljana. The study is based on an interdisciplinary approach that includes physical anthropology, kinesiology, psychology and sociology. The aim of the ARTOS research is to monitor secular trends in physical and motor development of children in terms of psychological, social and health factors that shape their modern lifestyles. Big database with the results of 17 different physical tests and tests of aerobic capacity, over 25 anthropometric dimensions and variables of other fields: psychology, socio-economic status, parents' opinion about physical activity, allows the variety of comparisons and links between all these variables (Jurak, Kovač & Starc, 2013). For measurements of every child, parental consent was obtained. Children participated voluntarily and anonymously with the option to freely withdraw from the measurements at any time. Data is collected in 11 elementary schools and research team is divided into 3 parts: anthropometry (measurement of physical characteristics in a separate area), kinesiology (majority of fitness tests were carried out in school gym, running (60m and 600m) were carried out outside), psychology (children solved questionnaires via the internet in the computer labs under control of one or two members of the research). Under the ACDSi study also physical activity measurements were made as a supplement of measures in 2013/14. Elementary schoolchildren from all 11 schools were measured in grade-6 (2013) and grade-9 (2016) and children from secondary school (2014) were measured in grade-1