Effects Of Childhood And Adolescent Sports Participation On Cognitive Performance And Emotion Recognition

PURPOSE: Physical activity offers many physical and mental health benefits including reduced risk of chronic disease and improved academic performance. Sports uniquely involve structured, goal-directed movements requiring coordination, strategy, and social interaction which may contribute to distinct cognitive and socio-emotional advantages. This study utilized data from the Lifespan Human Connectome Project Development (HCP-D) Study to examine the socio-cognitive benefits of childhood sports participation. We hypothesized that any sport participation may be associated with improved cognitive performance on tasks of executive function and memory, while team sport participation would specifically be associated with better emotion recognition due to its social implications. METHODS: Participants aged 5-17 were categorized into Individual Sport (n = 123), Team Sport (n = 323), or Non-Sport (n = 54) groups based on parent-reported lifetime participation in organized sports. Linear regression analyses were conducted to assess the relationship between sport participation and emotion recognition (Penn Emotion Identification Test) as well as cognitive performance (NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery), controlling for age, sex, race, ethnicity, BMI, financial hardships, and household income. RESULTS: Sport participation history had no effect on performance on any of the NIH Toolbox cognitive tasks (p-values between 0.103-0.999). However, there was a significant interaction between sport participation and participant age on reaction times to recognize fearful (F2,417 = 5.314, p = 0.005), happy (F2,418 = 3.335, p = 0.037), and sad faces (F2,418 = 4.219, p = 0.015), such that older participants with a history or team or individual sports were faster to correctly recognize these emotions than non-sport participants. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that older children who have played any sports are faster in recognizing emotions relative to older children who have not played any sports, despite matched cognitive performance. These findings highlight the potential role of sports participation in socio-cognitive development across childhood, likely supported by a reliance on quick and effective social interactions with teammates, coaches, and competitors during practices, training, and competitions.