Relationships between skeletal maturity and submaximal working capacity in boys 8 to 18 years

Skeletal age (SA) height, weight, PWC130, V̇o2 at 130 heart rate (V̇o130) and cardiorespiratory adaptation to work at 3 kgm·sec-1 were measured in 237 boys ranging in age from 8 to 18 years. Correlations for the total population for the variables of the study are generally higher with SA than with chronological age (CA), although there is no significant difference between the two sets of correlations. Analysis of linear trend indicate that significant nonlinear components are more frequent in the relationships between the variables and SA than with CA. Multiple regression analyses for each variate as dependent variable indicate that height and body weight generally contribute more to the explained variance, while SA is the next best predictor. CA is the least significant of the four independent variables. The total variance explained between any of the submaximal working capacity related measures acting as dependent variable and CA, height and weight is not significantly affected by the presence or absence of SA. The present study thus indicates that SA is not a significant factor in explaining submaximal working capacity, beyond CA, height and weight, when considered over the 8 to 18 year age span. However, when considering shorter age spans, or when considering the adolescent period (12-16 years), SA correlates better with PWC130 (.320<r<.675) and with V̇o130(.299<r<.772).