Abstract
The present study sought to analyze the associations of physical activity and academic achievement of middle school students from the city of Talca, Chile. A total of 2,094 (52,1% female) children and adolescents, boys and girls from 12 to 19 years old, participated in the study. The physical activity was measured by questionnaire. Data on students’ academic achievement was obtained through consulting the school official documents about the final year grades in Mathematics, Biology, Physical Education, English and Spanish. A linear regression analysis was performed to evaluate the associations of physical activity and academic achievement. The results show that the students’ attendance across subjects was 90%. The mean of all subjects was above 4 (enough to have success and to move on for the next school year). Girls had the higher grades in biology 5,80 ± 0,61, p = 0.001, English 5,88 ± 0,65, p = 0.01 e Spanish 5,91 ± 0,57, p < 0.001. More that 75% of the sample mentioned to practice physical activity at least three times per week. Boys were significantly more active than girls (26,40 ± 6,12 and 25,54 ± 5,97 p = 0.001). Among boys, physical activity was positively associated with their mathematics grades [F(6; 857) = 8,180, p = 0.039; t(857) = 2,068, p = 0.039]. The linear regression results only revealed a significant association between the physical activity score (25,96 ± 6,06) and mathematics grades for boys (β= 0,07; p = 0,039). These study results lead to the conclusion that boys with a higher physical activity score had a better academic achievement in mathematics, but not in biology, physical education, English and Spanish.
Keywords
Achievement; Learning; Physical activity; Children; School