ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Human Developmental Psychology
This article is part of the Research TopicPhysical Education, Health and Education Innovation-Vol IIIView all 29 articles
The Role of 24-Hour Movement Behaviors in Preschool Children's Learning Ability: The Mediating Effect of Inhibitory Control
Provisionally accepted
Chang Zhenya1*
Huang jia2- 1Changsha Normal University, Changsha, China
- 2The First Beichen Kindergarten of Changsha Municipal Education Bureau, changsha, China
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ABSTRACT This study investigated the impact of 24-hour movement behaviors—sleep (SP), sedentary behavior (SB), light physical activity (LPA), and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA)—on preschool children's learning ability, with emphasis on inhibitory control as a mediating variable. Data were collected from 328 preschoolers (182 boys and 146 girls) using accelerometers and sleep questionnaires. Inhibitory control was assessed using the Early Years Toolbox, while learning ability was evaluated through the Learning Ability Test. Results indicated that a 15-minute daily increase in MVPA, replacing SP, SB, or LPA, was associated with improvements in preschoolers' inhibitory control (0.038, 0.038, and 0.041, respectively) and learning ability (1.93, 1.87, and 2.52, respectively). Conversely, reallocating time in the opposite direction was associated with declines in both measures. Inhibitory control partially mediated the relationship between MVPA and learning ability across various demographic groups. For LPA, inhibitory control fully mediated its effect on learning ability in girls, while it fully mediated the impact of SP and MVPA on learning ability in boys. These findings collectively highlight the importance of 24-hour movement behaviors in enhancing learning ability in preschool children through improved inhibitory control.
Keywords: physical activity, sedentary behavior, Sleep, InhibitoryControl, learning ability, Movement behavior
Received: 01 Aug 2025; Accepted: 31 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhenya and jia. 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: Chang Zhenya, 52171000001@stu.ecnu.edu.cn
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