Creative thinking and its influence on students’ motor skill development: A correlational study

The study aims to explore the relationship between creativity and gross motor skills in elementary school students. The study involved 75 participants, comprising 39 males and 36 females from five regions within Yogyakarta City, Indonesia. The participants were selected from grade 5 junior high schools at the Regency/City level in February 2024. Their ages ranged from 10 to 12 years, placing them in the childhood age category. For data collection, creativity was assessed using the Drawing Production Test (TCT-DP) developed by Urban and Jellen (1996), as cited in Noblet (2019). Gross motor skills were measured using the Test of Gross Motor Development (TGMD-III), which demonstrated a validity coefficient of 0.89 and a reliability coefficient of 0.99. The overall relationship between creative thinking and students’ gross motor skills demonstrates a very strong positive correlation. This study falls under the category of sports psychology and focuses on physical education in teenagers and the long-term development of positive student character.