Classroom Active Breaks as a Physical-Educational Intervention for Executive Functions and Mathematical Outcomes: a Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis

The present study aimed (a) to examine, through a systematic review and meta-analysis, the effects of active breaks on attention, inhibitory control, working memory, and mathematical outcomes in schoolchildren and (b) to analyse whether break intensity, duration and modality moderate the effects of active breaks on executive function and mathematical outcomes. A systematic search was conducted in Web of Science, Scopus, ERIC, APA PsycArticles, APA PsycINFO, EBSCO, PubMed, Cochrane Library, Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts and ProQuest between November 2025 and February 2026. The quantitative synthesis consisted of 35 scientific articles. The total sample was 7701 students between 6 and 16 years old. Robust Variance Estimation was applied to account for dependent effect sizes within studies. Results suggest a small but statistically significant positive effect on working memory (g = 0.14, 95% CI [0.002, 0.288], p = 0.04). Exploratory meta-regression findings suggest that moderate-to-vigorous intensity, compared to moderate intensity, was associated with a small but significant improvement in working memory (β = 0.25, 95% CI [0.05 to 0.45], p = 0.02). In conclusion, active breaks may have a small positive effect on working memory, though effects on other cognitive and academic outcomes were not statistically significant. Meta-regression results suggest that higher intensity breaks could be associated with slightly greater improvements in working memory, but these findings should be interpreted cautiously. The limited and observational nature of the moderating evidence highlights the need for more rigorously designed studies to clarify how specific characteristics of active breaks relate to cognitive and academic outcomes.