Physical activity is defined as bodily movement that involves skeletal muscles and energy expenditure (Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee, 2018; Sneck et al., 2019). Adolescents are advised by the World Health Organization (WHO) to participate in at least 60 min of moderate physical activity (MPA) each day in order to stay healthy (World Health Organization, 2010). This volume of physical activity is also recommended by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2012), citing its instrumental influence on obesity prevention. However, as academic pressure encroaches on adolescents’ life, engagement in MPA has rapidly declined while increase in sedentary behavior has been widely observed (Van Stralen et al., 2014; Hartikainen et al., 2021). This trend, evidenced in recent literature, is likely to pose detrimental risks to adolescents’ health, wellbeing, and cognitive function (Corder et al., 2015; Hale et al., 2021).

With regard to adolescents’ health and wellbeing, the decreasing level of engagement with MPA negatively influences their musculoskeletal development, diet, sleep, body mass index (BMI), and sensory-motor interaction (Have et al., 2016; Zayed and Jansen, 2018; Barbosa et al., 2020). In addition, studies show that the reduction of MPA involvement can have adverse impacts on adolescents’ life satisfaction, self-image, and self-acceptation (Chen et al., 2021). Worryingly, there is a global trend of adolescents’ increasing sedentary behavior, which leads to the decline in their MPA involvement (Hale et al., 2021). Accordingly, this is likely to hinder their cognitive, motor, and social development, and is related to lower level of cognitive function (CF) among adolescents due to narrowing chances for neurogenesis, angiogenesis, and enhancement of central nervous system metabolism (Barbosa et al., 2020). As a result, adolescents’ executive function may be impacted (Singh et al., 2019). To address these concerns, previous studies have investigated the relationship between MPA involvement and CF, and have found that adolescents’ general health (GH) and subjective wellbeing (SWB) benefit from MPA and are both important factors in determining CF (Aadland et al., 2017; Barbosa et al., 2020).

In terms of mechanisms of how MPA influences adolescents’ CF, existing evidence has identified three lines of potential channels, including physiological factors, executive function, and learning dispositions. As for the physiological factors, routine MPA is associated with the increase of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, insulin-like growth factor-1 and vascular endothelial growth factor, all of which are strong determinants of developmental growth, maintenance and plasticity of the brain, and are related to CF (Barbosa et al., 2020). Neural growth and enhancement of synaptic transmission can lead to changes in adolescents’ prefrontal cortex and improvement of their executive functions including abstract reasoning, planning, and problem solving (Kopp, 2012). In addition, different types of MPA are found to influence CF in different ways. Some MPA can increase physiological arousal, leading to better attention and the release of neurotransmitters, whereas more aerobic MPA improves cardiovascular fitness and ameliorate oxygen saturation and glucose delivery, bringing benefits to neurogenesis and angiogenesis in brain areas that are responsible for CF (Egger et al., 2019; Singh et al., 2019). Besides influencing core executive function, benefits of MPA on adolescents’ CF are also mediated by the cultivation of learning dispositions and learning behaviors during their engagement of MPA which can help them excel in CF tests. The learning dispositions and qualities include organization skills, on-task behaviors and improved school attendance (Álvarez-Bueno et al., 2016).

More importantly, it has been well documented that adolescents’ MPA benefits both their physical and mental health (Penedo and Dahn, 2005; Barbosa et al., 2020), thus enhancing the level of their general health (GH) (Carson et al., 2016). On the one hand, in regard to physical health, MPA can ameliorate adolescents’ visual-motor coordination and improve their cardiovascular fitness (Cosgrove et al., 2018). MPA can also keep adolescents’ physically fit by reducing the chance of obesity and cardio-metabolic disease (Zayed and Jansen, 2018). MPA is also associated with a healthy diet, better sleep and can enhance adolescents CF (Cosgrove et al., 2018). On the other hand, as for the mental health, MPA is related with positive self-image, self-esteem, and self-efficacy. It can effectively reduce depressive symptomatology, psychological stress, and anxiety (Carson et al., 2016; Hale et al., 2021). Adolescents’ physical and mental health can in turn benefit cognitive performance and brain development, laying the physiological foundations for CF (Haverkamp et al., 2020). The lack of MPA is, therefore, seen as a major threat for adolescents’ GH and CF.

Additionally, subjective wellbeing (SWB) is a critical dimension of adolescents’ wellbeing and is a key indicator reflecting quality of life. It is a notion that describes people’s life satisfaction, pleasant and unpleasant affect (Hale et al., 2021). Research shows that SWB has close relationship with people’s sports involvement. Body image, self-esteem, and personal experience in sports can pose as barriers in sports participation (Martin et al., 2015). Likewise, regular exercise can improve life satisfaction, reduce depressive symptoms and improve mood (Jodra and Domínguez, 2020). By helping people gain social integration, social support and a sense of belonging, MPA is associated with self-acceptation, positive relationship, personal growth, environmental mastery, and purpose of life (Chen et al., 2021).

Despite the above discussions on adolescents’ MPA, GH, SWB and CF, there are important gaps needed to fill. Previous research mainly focused on acute physical activity interventions in pre-adolescent children (Haverkamp et al., 2020) and there is a relative lack of research on adolescents and on the effects of regular physical activity (Verburgh et al., 2013; Li et al., 2017; Xue et al., 2019). Furthermore, while most studies examined the effects of MPA on CF, few studies described its effects on CF embodied by the specific fields of language, math, and science (Haapala, 2012). Also, as previous research mainly used interventional approach or conducted metanalysis of the existing study (Egger et al., 2019; Haverkamp et al., 2020), large scale and cross-cultural studies are needed. Finally, little is known about whether GH and SWB, two significant factors benefited from MPA, can mediate the effects of MPA on adolescents’ CF.

This study investigated the effects of MPA on student’s CF. Existing research have demonstrated the significance of MPA on CF. Yet there is a lack of study focusing on the effects of MPA among adolescents and the mediating roles of GH and SWB. To fill the gap, this study explored the direct effects of MPA on adolescents’ CF based on large-scale, cross-cultural data and examined the mediating channels of GH and SWB.

Our findings demonstrated that MPA had both direct and indirect positive effects on students’ CF. The path coefficient from MPA to GH was .189 (p < .001), while the path coefficient from MPA to SWB was .183 (p < .001). MPA was found to have positive direct effects on math (path coefficient = .036, p < .001), reading (.027, p < .001), and science (.034, p < .001). GH and SWB were found to play significant mediating roles. Through the mediation of GH, MPA had an indirect influence on math (.003, p = .000), reading (.001, p = .000), and science (.002, p = .000). Meanwhile, SWB mediated the effects of MPA on math (.001, p = .000), reading (.002, p = .000), and science (.001, p = .000). To put this number in broader context, OECD (2016) reported .25 to .30 standard deviations as the amount of expected learning gains per year among middle-to-high income countries, while Evans and Yuan (2019) estimated learning gains per year between .15 and .21 standard deviations among low-to-middle income countries. Based on these prior estimates, conservative calculations indicated that our findings of .036 standard deviations increase in student learning outcomes approximately corresponded to between 1.4 and 1.8 additional months of learning in a typical 9-month school year.

The fulfillment of the hypothesis and contributions of this study are discussed as follows. First, since PISA 2018 dataset included information on students’ MPA and cognitive test results for math, reading, and science, this study managed to utilize SEM to evaluate the relationship between MPA and CF. Our analysis indicated that adolescents’ MPA had positive and significant direct effects on CF, which was consistent with previous research highlighting the role of physical activities in improving academic performance (Bedard et al., 2019; Barbosa et al., 2020).

Second, this study conceptualized students’ CF as their math, reading, and science achievements in PISA 2018. Through our analysis, it turned out that the effects of MPA were positive and significant on all the three subjects. In contrast, previous studies have reported inconsistent findings. For instance, Spruit et al. (2016) found positive effects of physical activities on science, including math, but not on language. While Álvarez-Bueno et al. (2016) reported positive effects on both language and math. Using a large and cross-cultural sample, this study reexamine inconclusive findings in existing literature.

This study also examined two potential mediation factors, adolescents’ GH and SWB, were found to mediate the effects of MPA on CF. By utilizing SEM, this study evaluated the extent to which SWB and GH mediated their relationship. These results have deepened to the understandings on the indirect effects of MPA on adolescents’ academic performance discussed in previous research (Sneck et al., 2019).

This study has the following implications: on the methodological level, it advanced the current discussions on MPA and CF. It used large and cross-cultural data, to study the relationship between MPA and adolescents’ CF and how GH and SWB mediate it. On the policy level, it reminds policymakers that it is beneficial to encourage MPA in schools; also, in order to improve adolescents’ CF, and school performance, educational stakeholders, including governments, schools, community, and parents, should work together to improve adolescents’ GH and SWB are important mechanism factors to consider.

This study mainly depended on the large, statistical data. Future research can go deep into the mechanism to explore the physiological foundations of the model. Pedagogical research is also needed to study how curriculum and educational reforms may benefit from these findings. The reasons behind differences among the subjects were not fully explored in the current study, which also requires further investigation.

Publicly available datasets were analyzed in this study. This data can be found online at: https://www.oecd.org/pisa/data/2018database/; OECD:PISA 2018 Database.

XLuan organized the team, managed the research project, and participated in the analysis of data and the preparation of manuscript. JL conceived and designed the study. XLuo did the literature review, participated in the analysis of data, and managed the corresponding issues. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

This work was supported by Researchers’ Start-up Fund of Shaanxi Normal University (funding No. 1301032077).

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.

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