Broader extracurricular activities may buffer girls against cognitive impacts of screen time, study suggests

A recent study indicates that a wider range of structured activities might mitigate the adverse effects of screen exposure on girls’ verbal working memory, though researchers urge caution and further investigation.

A study of 1,138 6- and 7-year-olds suggests that a wider mix of extracurricular activities may soften the link between heavy screen use and weaker verbal working memory in girls, although the authors say the finding is preliminary and should not yet be treated as settled. The research, published in Frontiers in Psychology, found that children’s screen exposure was associated with lower verbal working memory in both sexes, but the protective pattern appeared only among girls with a broader range of structured activities.

The sample included children from municipal kindergartens in five Russian regions, and their mothers reported screen use, household income, education and extracurricular participation. The children then completed executive function tasks, including measures of inhibition, verbal working memory and cognitive flexibility. Girls in the study spent less time on screens than boys and were more likely to take part in a greater number of activity types, while boys were more likely to do sports, chess and robotics. The researchers also found that screen time and extracurricular participation were not strongly linked, reducing concerns about multicollinearity in the moderation analysis.

The main statistical result was confined to girls: screen time and verbal working memory were significantly affected by the number of extracurricular activity types attended. Among girls taking part in only a few activities, higher screen time was tied to poorer verbal working memory, but that pattern weakened as the variety of activities increased. The authors stress that this does not prove a causal protective effect, pointing out that the study was cross-sectional and exploratory and that the interaction would not survive a strict correction for multiple testing.

The finding fits with a broader view of childhood development in which structured activities may provide cognitive enrichment, routine and reduced opportunity for passive screen use. The paper also notes that the result was specific to verbal working memory and did not extend to inhibition or cognitive flexibility, suggesting that any benefit may depend on the type of activity and the executive skill being measured. The authors say the result should be replicated in other countries and with more detailed measures of screen content, activity intensity and family routines before practical advice is drawn from it.