Association between football training experience and attentional networks in boys aged 7-11 years: a cross-sectional
1Institute of Physical Education, Huzhou Normal University, Huzhou, China.
Background:
While physical exercise has been shown to benefit the attentional networks in adolescents, older adults, and clinical populations, the specific associations regarding typically developing children remain unclear. This study aimed to investigate the association between football training experience and attentional sub-networks in boys aged 7-11 years.
Methods:
A total of 94 boys aged 7-11 years were recruited in this cross-sectional study and categorized into a football group (n = 47, ≥1 year of systematic football training) and a control group (n = 47, with no systematic extracurricular sports training, engaging only in regular school physical education classes). All participants completed the Attention Network Test to assess the efficiency of three sub-networks: alerting, orienting, and executive control.
Results:
The football group showed significantly higher efficiency in both the alerting and executive control networks compared with the control group, with the latter characterized by a smaller conflict effect. Conversely, no significant group difference was found in orienting network efficiency.
Conclusion:
These findings suggest a selective association between football training experience and attentional networks, specifically highlighting advantages in the alerting and executive control networks. This study provides empirical support for considering football as a developmentally appropriate activity that is associated with specific attentional advantages in boys aged 7-11 years.
