REVIEW article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Movement Science
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1585415
Designed Physical Activities Targeting Social Skills in Preschoolers: A Meta-analysis
Provisionally accepted
- Beijing Sport University, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
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Objectives: To comprehensively evaluate the impact of Designed Physical Activities (DPA) on the social skills of preschoolers, as well as its specific subdomains.We obtained data from Web of Science, EBSCO, cochrane library, PubMed, PsycInfo, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, WanfangData, and VIP Data from the establishment of each databases to June, 21, 2024. Two researchers independently assessed the quality of the study using the Cochrane risk of the bias assessment tool. Meta-analysis was performed when data were available, with further subgroup analysis, using Review Manager 5.4, and sensitivity analysis was performed using Stata software 15.1.Search terms yielded 7074 articles, of which 14 fulfilled the inclusion criteria.Results showed that DPA had beneficial effects for social skills [SMD = 0.63, p ＜ 0.0001],and insignificant positive effects for emotional skill [SMD = 1.86, p = 0.08]. Subgroup analysis indicated that interventions with both music and tools, and without music or tools caused positive effects, while those with only music or only tools did not. Considerable outcomes were achieved regardless of the frequencies of the intervention. Interventions of 12 weeks and had a significant effect in promoting preschoolers' social skills. Notably, the outcomes reported by parents were significantly higher than that reported by teachers and tested by children.DPA can significantly improve social skills and emotional skill in preschoolers.Nevertheless, it is imperative to conduct further trials with meticulous and rigorous study designs in order to furnish more definitive evidence in the foreseeable future. school adaption, quality of life, academic performance, and problem-solving (Arslan et al., 2011;Hosokawa & Katsura, 2017; Odom et al., 2008). Insufficient social skills could cause bad influences on children's cognition, emotion, and behaviour, which may lead to barriers in mental and psychological development of individuals. According to the results of previous studies, children with deficits in social skills may have more disorders in internalizing and externalizing behaviour, poorer academic performance, more inappropriate reconciliation and adjustment, and worse relationships with parents, peers, and teachers, impeding in further development and leading to potential severe psychological issues (Karimi et al., 2010; King
Keywords: designed physical activity, Social Skills (MeSH), Preschool children, Meta-analysis, preschooler, physical activity
Received: 28 Feb 2025; Accepted: 11 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yuan, Liu, Yi and LI. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xiaofen LI, Beijing Sport University, Beijing, 100084, Beijing Municipality, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.