Associations Between Movement Behaviors, Cognition, and Academic Achievement in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Objective: This systematic review summarizes the literature on the associations between movement behaviors (eg, sleep, sedentary behavior, and physical activity [PA]) and cognition, and academic achievement (AA) in children and adolescents.

Methods: Four electronic databases (PubMed, Embase, PsycINFO, and SPORTDiscus) were searched from inception until October 2023.

Results: This systematic review included 24 reports, representing 48,558 youth aged 6-17.9 years. Ten reports (46%) showed a high risk of bias, and overall quality of evidence ranged from very low to moderate. No reports assessed the associations between sleep and cognition; 1 cross-sectional report showed beneficial associations between sleep and AA. Sedentary behaviors showed null associations with AA in 43% of the reports; however, screen time was detrimentally associated with AA in all reports. Overall, 57% of the reports looking at the associations between PA and cognition showed beneficial associations; 53% showed beneficial associations between PA and AA; 56% of the randomized controlled trials showed beneficial impacts on cognition (3 out of 5) or on AA (2 out of 4).

Conclusions: Overall, this systematic review showed evidence of beneficial associations between PA and cognition and AA, as well as detrimental effects of screen time. Due to the many inconsistent results found for sedentary behavior, together with scarce data on associations between sleep duration and cognition, and AA in children and adolescents, more research is needed so researchers can draw strong and evidence-based conclusions.

Keywords: health; health promotion; physical activity; sedentary behavior; sleep.