Abstract
Even though positive relations between children’s motor ability and their academic achievement are frequently reported, the underlying mechanisms are still unclear. Executive function has indeed been proposed, but hardly tested as a potential mediator. The aim of the present study was therefore to examine the mediating role of executive function in the relationship between motor ability and academic achievement, also investigating the individual contribution of specific motor abilities to the hypothesized mediated linkage to academic achievement. At intervals of ten weeks, 236 children aged between 10 and 12 years were tested in terms of their motor ability (t1: cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength, motor coordination), core executive functions (t2: updating, inhibition, shifting), and academic achievement (t3: mathematics, reading, spelling). Structural equation modelling revealed executive function to be a mediator in the relation between motor ability and academic achievement, represented by a significant indirect effect. In separate analyses, each of the three motor abilities were positively related to children’s academic achievement. However, only in the case of children’s motor coordination, the mediation by executive function accounted for a significance percentage of variance of academic achievement data. The results provide evidence in support of models that conceive executive function as a mechanism explaining the relationship that links children’s physical activity-related outcomes to academic achievement and strengthen the advocacy for quality physical activity not merely focused on health-related physical fitness outcomes, but also on motor skill development and learning.
Highlights
The beneficial effects of regular physical activity (PA) on children’s physical [1] and mental health [2] are well known
To test the mediation hypothesis, the covariances in the aforementioned model were replaced by directional paths from motor ability to academic achievement, from motor ability to executive function (EF), and from EF to academic achievement
The results showed that (i) the relationship between motor ability and academic achievement was indirectly mediated by EF and that (ii) among the three different motor abilities–all positively related to children’s academic achievement–only children’s motor coordination ability predicted their academic achievement fully mediated through their EF performance
Summary
The beneficial effects of regular physical activity (PA) on children’s physical [1] and mental health [2] are well known. The decrease in children’s PA levels and PA-related motor performances is alarming in terms of their health, and in terms of their cognitive development, knowing that both motor and cognitive abilities are strongly interrelated with academic achievement [6, 7]. For example, endurance is localized on the one side of the continuum, being a more energetically-determined ability, motor coordination would be placed at the other end, being a more information-oriented ability [12]. Based on the assumption of shared information processes in both motor and cognitive control [13], information-oriented motor abilities should be more strongly related to children’s cognitive abilities as the more energetically-determined ones. Because research has lacked to include different motor abilities across the aforementioned continuum in one single study, the question whether specific motor abilities, such as aerobic endurance, muscular strength or motor coordination, contribute differentially to the development of cognitive abilities and academic achievement remains unanswered
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