Physical activity interventions promoting social competence at school: A systematic review

This systematic review evaluates the effectiveness of physical activity interventions promoting social competence in school. A literature search was performed in November 2016 using the following inclusion criteria: social competence is assessed, sports-related setting at school, participants aged 6–19, randomized controlled trial or controlled clinical trial design, full-text article or dissertation thesis in English or German. An assessment of the risk of bias showed two studies with low or unclear risk in all categories. Overall, 29 studies were included in the review. The majority of the intervention programmes showed positive effects on behavioural (85%) and cognitive-perceptive (75%) aspects of social competence and to a lesser extent on motivational-emotional (14.3%) aspects. A transfer of positively promoted aspects into another setting (e.g. subject) was not tested or unsuccessful. Future intervention programs should focus on a high standard of methodological quality, larger sample sizes and more reliable assessed data regarding students' social competence.