The Impacts of Coordinated-Bilateral Ball Skills Intervention on Attention and Concentration, and Cardiorespiratory Fitness among Fourth-Grade Students

Background: Both cognitive function and cardiorespiratory fitness are significant correlates of physical and mental health. The exploration of innovative school-based PA intervention strategies to improve cognitive function and cardiorespiratory fitness is of great interest for researchers and school educators. This study aimed at examining the effectiveness of the coordinated-bilateral ball skills (CBBS) intervention in improving cognitive function and cardiorespiratory fitness among 4th-grade students. Methods: This study used a two-arm, quasi-experimental research design. The students (n = 347) in the intervention group received 16-weeks of CBBS intervention lessons in basketball and soccer. The students (n = 348) in the comparison group received 16-weeks of regular basketball and soccer lessons. All participants were pre- and post-tested with the d2 Test of Attention and the Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run (PACER) test before and after the 16-week CBBS intervention. The data were analyzed by means of descriptive statistics and linear mixed models. Results: The linear mixed models yielded a marginal significant interaction effect of time with the group in their concentration (F((1, 680.130)) = 3.272, p = 0.071) and a significant interaction effect of time with the group in their attention span (F((1, 785.108)) = 4.836, p = 0.028) while controlling for age and the baseline concentration score. The linear mixed model also revealed a significant main effect of time in focused attention (F((1670.605)) = 550.096, p = 0.000), attention accuracy (F((1, 663.124)) = 61.542, p = 0.000), and cardiorespiratory fitness (F((1, 680.336)) = 28.145, p = 0.000), but no significant interaction effect. Conclusions: The CBBS group demonstrated a significant improvement in concentration performance and attention span over time, compared to the comparison group. Both groups improved their focused attention and attention accuracy as well as cardiorespiratory fitness over time. This study suggests that teaching ball skills in team sports for extended periods is instrumental to developing cognitive functions and cardiorespiratory fitness, though the CBBS lessons resulted in greater improvement in concentration performance and attention span.