Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Mar 17:10:839473.
doi: 10.3389/fped.2022.839473. eCollection 2022.

Participation in After-School Extracurricular Activities and Cognitive Ability Among Early Adolescents in China: Moderating Effects of Gender and Family Economic Status

Yangu Pan  1 , Di Zhou  1 , Daniel Tan Lei Shek  2
Affiliations

Participation in After-School Extracurricular Activities and Cognitive Ability Among Early Adolescents in China: Moderating Effects of Gender and Family Economic Status

Yangu Pan et al. Front Pediatr. .

Abstract

Although theories and research suggest that participation in extracurricular activities plays an important role in adolescents' cognitive development, few studies have addressed this issue among early adolescents in China. Based on the responses of 9,830 Chinese junior high school students (M age = 14.54 years, SD = 0.70 years), we investigated the relationships between different types of extracurricular activities and cognitive ability among junior high school students and the moderating effects of gender and family economic status. Using multi-level multiple regression analyses, results indicated that while time spent completing homework and physical exercise was positively associated with students' cognitive ability, time spent on extracurricular tutoring, interest classes, watching TV, and surfing online and playing games was negatively related to students' cognitive ability. The observed relationships were also moderated by gender and family economic status. Specifically, time spent on completing homework had a stronger positive relationship with boys' cognitive ability, whereas time spent attending extracurricular tutoring on weekdays had a stronger negative relationship with girls' cognitive ability, and time spent on physical exercise was more strongly related to girls' cognitive ability in a positive manner. Besides, time spent attending interest classes on weekdays had a stronger negative relationship with cognitive ability among students from wealthy families, and time spent watching TV and physical exercise had stronger negative and positive effects on the cognitive ability among students from economically disadvantaged families, respectively. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings regarding the role of extra-curricular activities on adolescent development are discussed.

Keywords: China; cognitive ability; early adolescents; extracurricular activities; family economic status; gender.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Deary IJ. Intelligence. Annu Rev Psychol. (2012) 63:453–82. 10.1146/annurev-psych-120710-100353 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Heckman JJ, Stixrud J, Urzua S, Heckman JJ, Stixrud J, Urzua S. The effects of cognitive and noncognitive abilities on labor market outcomes and social behavior. NBER Work Pap. (2006) 24:411–82. 10.1086/504455 - DOI
    1. Huang GY, Xie Y. The influence of cognitive ability and non-cognitive ability on the return of young people’s labor income. China Youth Study. (2017) 56–64+97.
    1. Calvin MC, Batty GD, Der G, Brett CE, Taylor A, Pattie A, et al. Childhood intelligence in relation to major causes of death in 68 year follow-up: prospective population study. BMJ. (2017) 357:1–13. 10.1136/bmj.j2708 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Lencz T, Knowles E, Davies G, Guha S, Liewald DC, Starr JM, et al. Molecular genetic evidence for overlap between general cognitive ability and risk for schizophrenia: a report from the cognitive genomics consortium (cogent). Mol Psychiatry. (2014) 19:168–74. 10.1038/mp.2013.166 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources