ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Health Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1555451
Comparing the Effects of Physical Activity and Cognitive Training on Cognitive Performance, Physical Fitness, and Mental Health in 9-to 10-Year-Old Children: A Randomized Clinical Trial
Provisionally accepted
Shanshan Wang
Jingwu Liu*- Changzhi University, Changzhi, China
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Aim: This study aims to compare the effects of physical activity (PA), cognitive training (CT), and their combination (PA+CT) on cognitive performance, physical fitness, and mental health in children aged 9-10 years using a randomized controlled trial (RCT). Methods: This RCT assigned 145 children (9.74 ± 0.43 years, 46% girls) into four groups: Con (no intervention), PA (aerobic exercises), CT (cognitive tasks), and PA+CT (combined PA and CT). All interventions were administered 4 times weekly over 12 weeks, with 40-minute sessions per intervention. The PA group underwent regular physical activity, the CT group received cognitive training, and the PA+CT group combined both activities. Key anthropometric measurements (including height, weight, BMI body mass index (BMI), physical fitness test (including vital capacity, flexibility quality, speed quality, aerobic performance, physical coordination), cognitive function assessments (including attention, reaction time, spatial memory), and mental health evaluations (including anxiety, depression) were conducted before and after the intervention. Results: The results demonstrated that there were no significant differences of body composition among the groups (p>0.05). The results of physical fitness revealed that PA, CT, PA+CT interventions, can significantly improve physical fitness parameters in children (p<0.05), conversely, CT alone show no significant impact in the physical fitness aspect (p>0.05).The results of cognition and mental health showed that significant improvement of all cognition and mental health parameters in the PA, CT, PA+CT groups than that in the Control group (p<0.05), with the strongest effects in PA+CT. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that structured interventions administered 4 times weekly can differentially improve physical fitness, cognition and mental health outcomes in school-aged children. The synergistic effects observed in the combined PA+CT group underscore the value of integrating physical and cognitive training in school health programs.
Keywords: Exercise, Physical Fitness, Cognition, Mental Health, Children
Received: 14 Feb 2025; Accepted: 24 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Jingwu Liu, Changzhi University, Changzhi, China
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