Association Between 24-h Movement Behaviors and Mental Health in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review and...

This systematic review and meta-analysis synthesized evidence of the association between 24-h movement behaviors and social-emotional health and cognitive development in children and adolescents aged 3-18 years from studies using compositional data analysis. Systematic literature searches were conducted on five electronic databases from January 2015 to December 2024. Studies were eligible if they assessed sleep, moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity, light intensity physical activity, and sedentary time. Eligible studies also examined associations between movement behaviors and social-emotional health or cognitive development using compositional data analysis in children and adolescents aged 3-18 years. Pooled effect sizes were estimated using cluster robust variance meta-analysis. A total of 19 studies (5 longitudinal, 14 cross-sectional) encompassing 11 826 participants were included. Meta-analysis showed that engaging in more moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity, getting more sleep, and spending less time sedentary relative to other movement behaviors was favorably associated with social-emotional health; albeit, the observed relationships were small in magnitude. The association for sleep was stronger among adolescents compared to children. No components of 24-h movement behavior compositions were associated with cognitive development. These findings suggest that engaging in healthy movement behavior compositions may be beneficial for social-emotional health in young people, although the link between 24-h movement behavior compositions and cognitive development is less clear.