Development of fundamental movement skills research in last decade: a systematic review and bibliometric analysis

Abstract

This study presents a systematic review and bibliometric analysis of fundamental movement skills (FMS) research over the past decade (2015–2024), explicitly following PRISMA guidelines and utilizing VOSviewer (version 1.6.19) for bibliometric mapping. A total of 611 articles were retrieved from the Scopus database, of which 520 met the inclusion criteria after screening for peer-reviewed English articles with full-text access. The analysis reveals that FMS publications peaked in 2021 (72 articles), yet average citations per article declined sharply from 44.59 in 2015 to 2.27 in 2024. Australia contributed the highest number of publications (127; average citations 29.20), followed by the United Kingdom (103; 17.53) and the United States (62; 28.17), indicating an Anglo-centric dominance in the field. Medicine (338 publications) and Health Professions (197 publications) emerged as the dominant subject areas. The ten most cited studies focused on three core themes: validation of FMS assessment tools, structured interventions in physical education and family settings, and conceptual models linking FMS to lifelong physical activity and injury prevention. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that FMS research has matured from measurement validation toward lifespan health applications, yet significant gaps remain, including a lack of longitudinal studies, limited culturally adapted assessment tools, and underrepresentation of Global South contexts. Future research should prioritize multi-year developmental tracking and interventions tailored to diverse socioeconomic settings.