Examining Variations Between Everyday Life Handedness and Lateral Preferences for Sport-Specific Skills in Children

Purpose: This study aimed to analyze both sport-specific lateral preferences and handedness for everyday life tasks among school-aged children. Method: A total of 533 children (254 males and 279 females) aged 6 to 15 years old were assessed. Children's handedness was determined according to the laterality score from Edinburgh Handedness Inventory (EHI), while lateral preferences were assessed for 16 different sport-specific tasks. Results: The percentage of children with a left hand preference was lower for unilateral (10.5-14.3%) than for bilateral (19.5-31.7%) tasks. An increased prevalence of left-sided preference was also obtained for foot tasks (13.3-26.8%) and rotation along the vertical axis (28.5%). Similarly, hand preference for unilateral sport-specific tasks and EHI scores were largely correlated (r = 0.551-0.630), while these correlations were lower for bilateral hand tasks (r = 0.148-0.418), foot tasks (r = 0.201-0.386) and rotation preference (r = 0.129). Moreover, left-handed children evidenced less lateralized behavior for sport-specific tasks than right-handed children. Conclusions: The current study has shown that sport-specific lateral preferences and their correlations with handedness vary considerably depending on the task and individual characteristics in developmental ages. These findings emphasize the relevance of task-specific assessments of lateral preferences when looking at sports skills during childhood.