{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,3]],"date-time":"2026-08-03T22:36:38Z","timestamp":1785796598553,"version":"3.56.0"},"reference-count":31,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"7","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,9]],"date-time":"2026-07-09T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1783555200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Universidad Aut\u00f3noma de Chile","award":["DIP 249-2022"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["DIP 249-2022"]}]},{"award":["DIP 249-2022"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["DIP 249-2022"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/010r9dy59","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Children"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background\/Objectives: Postural stability is considered a key component of motor development during early childhood; however, its specific association with different components of physical fitness in preschool children remains insufficiently explored. This study aimed to evaluate the association between postural stability and physical fitness components in preschool children. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in 134 preschool children. Physical fitness was assessed through lower-limb muscular strength (standing long jump), speed\/agility (4 \u00d7 10 m shuttle run), cardiorespiratory fitness (20 m shuttle run), and flexibility (sit-and-reach test). Object-control skills and postural stability were evaluated using selected tasks from the Movement Assessment Battery for Children-2. Composite indices were created for object-control skills and postural stability. Multiple linear regression analyses were performed adjusting for age, sex, body mass index (BMI), and object-control skills. Additional analyses included ANCOVA by postural stability tertiles and sensitivity analyses using HC3 robust standard errors, exclusion of influential observations, and bootstrap resampling. Results: Greater postural stability was independently associated with better lower-limb muscular strength (B = 9.49; 95% CI: 4.39\u201314.60; p \u2264 0.001) and cardiorespiratory fitness (B = 0.27; 95% CI: 0.06\u20130.49; p = 0.014). An association with speed\/agility was observed in the primary model but lost statistical significance in sensitivity analyses. No significant association was found with flexibility. ANCOVA analyses confirmed significant differences across postural stability tertiles for lower-limb muscular strength (p = 0.033) and cardiorespiratory fitness (p = 0.011). Sensitivity analyses supported the robustness of the associations for lower-limb muscular strength and cardiorespiratory fitness. Conclusions: Greater postural stability was consistently associated with better lower-limb muscular strength and cardiorespiratory fitness in preschool children. These findings suggest that postural stability is associated with selected components of physical fitness during early childhood. Longitudinal and intervention studies are needed to clarify the direction and potential implications of these associations.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/children13070910","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,9]],"date-time":"2026-07-09T16:16:44Z","timestamp":1783613804000},"page":"910","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Postural Stability and Physical Fitness in Preschool Children: Associations with Lower-Limb Muscular Strength, Speed\/Agility, and Cardiorespiratory Fitness"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8613-6838","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Andr\u00e9s","family":"Godoy-Cumillaf","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Grupo de Investigaci\u00f3n en Educaci\u00f3n F\u00edsica, Salud y Calidad de Vida (EFISAL), Facultad de Educaci\u00f3n, Universidad Aut\u00f3noma de Chile, Temuco 4780000, Chile"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4372-0836","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Josivaldo","family":"de Souza-Lima","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Facultad de Educaci\u00f3n y Ciencias Sociales, Instituto del Deporte y Bienestar, Universidad Andres Bello, Las Condes, Santiago 7550000, Chile"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2685-8991","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Frano","family":"Giakoni-Ram\u00edrez","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Facultad de Educaci\u00f3n y Ciencias Sociales, Instituto del Deporte y Bienestar, Universidad Andres Bello, Las Condes, Santiago 7550000, Chile"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0002-5354-1313","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Catalina","family":"Mu\u00f1oz-Strale","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Facultad de Educaci\u00f3n y Ciencias Sociales, Instituto del Deporte y Bienestar, Universidad Andres Bello, Las Condes, Santiago 7550000, Chile"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5488-9878","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Maribel","family":"Parra-Saldias","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Departamento de Educaci\u00f3n F\u00edsica, Deporte y Recreaci\u00f3n, Universidad de Atacama, Copiap\u00f3 1530000, Chile"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9020-5776","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Daniel","family":"Duclos-Bastias","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"iGEO, Escuela de Educaci\u00f3n F\u00edsica, Facultad de Filosof\u00eda y Educaci\u00f3n, Pontificia Universidad Cat\u00f3lica de Valpara\u00edso, Valpara\u00edso 2340025, Chile"},{"name":"METIS Research Lab, Facultad de Negocios y Tecnolog\u00eda, Universidad Alfonso X el Sabio (UAX), 28691 Madrid, Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4027-4415","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Claudio","family":"Farias-Valenzuela","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Escuela de Ciencias de la Actividad F\u00edsica, el Deporte y la Salud, Universidad de Santiago de Chile (USACH), Santiago 9170022, Chile"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1557-2285","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Eugenio","family":"Merellano-Navarro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physical Activity Sciences, Faculty of Education Sciences, Universidad Cat\u1f79lica del Maule, Talca 3530000, Chile"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0007-0149-796X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jos\u00e9","family":"Bruneau-Ch\u00e1vez","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Departamento de Educaci\u00f3n F\u00edsica, Deportes y Recreaci\u00f3n, Universidad de la Frontera, Temuco 4811230, Chile"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,9]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ke, D., Maimaitijiang, R., Shen, S., Kishi, H., Kurokawa, Y., and Suzuki, K. 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