ABSTRACT This study aimed to investigate both the relationship between parent‐reported habitual exercise and attention in young children and the immediate effects of different acute exercise intensities on their attention performance. Using a two‐phase design, the study first employed parent questionnaires from 180 children aged 5–6 years in a quasi‐experimental group comparison, followed by a behavioral experiment where 157 of these children were assigned to four exercise conditions to measure attention after acute exercise. Results from the parent reports showed that light habitual exercise correlated with multiple attention components, most strongly with stability ( r = .27, p < .01). Vigorous exercise correlated with distribution and shift ( r = .16–.18, all p s < .05). Under various exercise intensities, the attention ability of children with more habitual exercise was significantly better than that of children with less exercise (all p s < 0.05), with large effect sizes (Cohen's d = .61–1.57). Data from the behavioral experiment showed that children in the acute moderate‐intensity exercise group scored highest in attention span, distribution, and stability ( = .06–.25, all p s < .05). In conclusion, regular engagement in light‐to‐vigorous physical activity may be associated with healthier development of attention abilities in early childhood. Acute moderate‐intensity exercise transiently enhances children's attention span, stability, and distribution performance within 10 min post‐exercise, whereas acute vigorous‐intensity exercise reduces attention span during this immediate post‐exercise period.
Lu et al. (Sun,) studied this question.