Academic Achievement: The Relationship Between Physical Activity And Sports

Great Essays
1. The search terms I used to locate this study were “high school,” “athletics,” “academic achievement.” I found the study in the SPORTDiscus with Full Text database. I chose this study over the others in the search results because it directly related to be research topic, and, after reading the abstract, I noticed that it was unique compared to the other studies I had already looked at. While the first few studies I analyzed solely focused on the relationship between sport participation and academic achievement, this study also investigated the relationship between academic achievement and physical activity not associated with sport.
Reference
Fox, C., Barr-Anderson, D., Neumark-Sztainer, D., & Wall, M. (2010). Physical activity and sports
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There is no “Review of Literature” section in this study, but the authors provide substantial background information in the opening section of the study. The authors mention that there have been multiple studies that have shown that students who engage in more hours of physical activity tend to have better academic achievement than those who are less physically active. They do acknowledge that there have been very few studies that have shown “no favorable relationship” between academic performance and physical activity. The researchers provide further background information by explaining that there have been a plethora of studies that have shown that sport participation is associated with better academic performance. However, the authors state that researchers remain uncertain as to whether or not improved academic achievement of athletes is associated with the physical activity that comes with playing sports, the specific benefits that come along with being a part of an athletic team (more support from coaches/teachers, needing to meet grade requirements, etc.), or a combination of …show more content…
They state that more research needs to be done to address the “academic culture of students who compete on sports teams compared to those who do not.” (Fox, 2010, p. 36) They believe there are reasons that high school athletes see more of an increase in GPA than those who are not on sports teams or those who participate in physical activity outside of sport. For example, they hypothesize that high school athletes may feel more pride and school connectedness than middle school students, and they also might have higher minimum grade requirements than middle school

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