Peer-reviewed article

Associations Between Sports-Based After-School Activities, Cognitive Ability, Physical Health, Problematic Internet Use, Psychosocial Health, and Health-Related Behaviors Among Indonesian Adolescents.

Nurulfa R, Klavina A, Melczer C · 1 Jul 2026

Abstract

Objectives This study aimed to compare cognitive ability, physical (motor proficiency and fitness), and psychosocial (depressive symptoms and quality of life) outcomes between adolescents participating in extracurricular sports (ES) and non-sports (NS) and to examine predictors of problematic Internet use (PIU). Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted with 433 Indonesian adolescents (ES=239, 49.0% males; NS=194, 52.1% males). Standardized measures included the Problematic and Risky Internet Use Screening Scale for PIU, Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices for cognitive ability, Bruininks-Oseretsky Test-2 for motor proficiency, the Indonesian Student Physical Fitness Test, the Youth Quality of Life-Short Form for quality of life, and the Patient Health Questionnaire-Adolescent Version for depression. Group differences were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney test. Spearman's correlations were used to assess associations between variables, and linear regression was used to identify predictors of PIU. Results ES adolescents showed significantly higher cognitive ability, motor proficiency, physical fitness, and quality of life and lower PIU and depressive symptoms than the NS groups (all p<0.001). PIU positively correlated with depression and negatively correlated with motor proficiency, physical fitness, cognitive ability, and quality of life. The regression analyses identified depression as a strong positive predictor of PIU, whereas cognitive ability, motor proficiency, physical fitness, and quality of life were significant negative predictors, explaining the substantial variance in PIU. Conclusion Adolescents participating in ES demonstrated higher cognitive, physical (motor proficiency and fitness), and psychosocial outcomes (depressive symptoms and quality of life) than NS participants. Depression was positively associated with PIU, whereas motor proficiency, fitness, cognitive ability, and quality of life were inversely associated with PIU.