Active break as a tool for improving attention in the educational context. A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Active breaks have now been shown to be a tool that helps improve physical health and some executive functions. The objective was to analyse the effects of the interventions carried out through active breaks for the improvement of attention according to the educational stage, duration of the session and duration of the intervention. A systematic search has been conducted until March 2023 including scientific articles reporting on an intervention programme based on active breaks to improve attention and studies using a quasi-experimental or experimental methodological design with pre-test and post-test. The bibliographic search has been carried out in Web of Science, Scopus and Pubmed, specifically in the categories of “Education Educational Research” “Sport Sciences” “Psychology” “Psychology Applied” “Psychology Educational” and “Social Sciences”. The sample of the quantitative synthesis consisted of 15 research studies with 1474 participants. Three moderating variables were established: educational stage, session time and intervention programme time. The average effect size has been ( X¯ = 0.31; CI = [0.21; 0.42]). The moderators' analysis has shown that high school education is the most effective stage for developing active breaks ( X¯ = 0.58; CI = [0.42; 0.74]). It has also been observed that intervention programmes with a duration of 5 to 8 weeks ( X¯ = 0.53; CI = [0.37; 0.69]) with a 30-minute duration per session ( X¯= 0.98; CI = [0.74; 1.22]) were the most effective in improving attention. These results have led to the conclusion that the educational stage, the duration of the intervention and the length of the programme sessions are variables to be taken into account when it comes to active breaks.