A Systematic Review of the Impact of Physical Activity on Cognitive and Noncognitive Development in Chinese University Students

Abstract

A large volume of empirical evidence and literature reviews on physical activity have concentrated on primary and secondary education. Thus, the primary aim of this systematic review is to synthesize empirical evidence regarding the potential impact of physical activity on academic and nonacademic performance among Chinese university students. A search and analysis of studies was conducted in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines by using an electronic database search (PubMed, Science Direct, and Scopus), and 150 studies were obtained. Subsequently, after producing rigorous inclusion and exclusion criteria, which were used to consider quality, methodology, language, geographical location, year of publication, etc., a total of 11 quantitative research articles, based on Chinese higher education institutions, were chosen for synthesis. The comprehensive analysis of the studies affirmed that physical activity dramatically benefits university students by fostering their nonacademic skills, such as social relatedness, life satisfaction, and mental health, in addition to boosting their academic achievement in terms of graduation, GPA, academic motivation, and engagement. However, the aim of this systematic review was to provide implications for future scholars to explicitly study university students’ educational level, discipline, sex, and type of physical activity.