Desempenho de nado e habilidades aquáticas : uma análise de confiabilidade e validade de construto do teste de aquaticidade - Brasil

Abstract

Aquaticity refers to the ability that humans develop from a young age when moving, developing and practicing activities in a liquid environment. The term aquaticity and the test emerged in Greece in 2016. In 2022, this test was adapted and translated for the Brazilian population of adolescents aged 12 to 14. The objective of the study was to analyze the relationship between swimming performance (SP) and aquatic skills and verify the level of reliability and construct validity of the respective tests. The Study had two sample groups. The first group was composed of two examiners responsible for applying the instruments. The second group was made up of 22 students of both sexes, aged between 10 and 16 years old, divided into a competitive group (CG) and a non-competitive group (NCG). The tests were divided into two stages, one week apart, and the sessions lasted approximately 60 minutes. From the SP, the following variables were analyzed: distance from entry into the water, distance from the submerged phase, swimming time and time of the central 20 m, cycle frequency, cycle length, and the maximum turn test. The second instrument chosen was the Aquaticity Test - Brazil (ATB), composed of 12 tasks related to aquatic motor skills: floating and balance on the surface (T1); breathing control (T2); slide into underwater hydrodynamic position (T3); free movement in 25m close to the surface (T4); adequacy of physical fitness in water (T5); vertical support with the head out of the water (T6); underwater senses vision (T7); underwater senses hearing (T8); underwater swimming (T9); expiratory immersion (T10); entry into the water (T11); slide on the surface followed by somersault (T12). The comparison between CG and NCG for each of the 12 ATB tasks indicated a significant difference only for tasks T3, T9 and T11. When comparing the SP results between the CG and NCG, the means of the two groups are statistically different, with the exception of the distance into the water. There is a significant negative correlation (p<0.05) between the general ATB result and 50-meter swimming time, central 20-meter swimming time, and maximum turn test, and a significant positive correlation for the variable frequency of cycles, distance entry into the water, and distance from the submerged phase. The ATB and the SP tool showed good and excellent reliability in the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) between 0.75 and 0.90 for intra-examiner analysis. No differences were found between Week 1 and Week 2, for any of the variables analyzed or for the examiners. Regarding the inter-examiner analysis, we found excellent reliability (ICC>90) for the ATB, showing highly correlated scores between the examiners and on the two different days. For the SP tool, the ICCs were between moderate and excellent (between 0.50 and 0.95). We conclude that the significant differences identified in SP and aquatic skills between the CG and NCG corroborate the correlations, that the practice time, considering some specifications, has a general importance in crawl swimming performance and in the possibility of the subject having an advanced performance. The correlation between swimming performance and aquatic skills points to evidence that confirms that the better swimming performance, the better indices of aquatic skills. In general, the results indicated evidence of construct validity, reliability, objectivity and reproducibility of the respective tests.