Longitudinal Associations between Physical Fitness and Academic Achievement in Youth

Substantial parallel mediation contribution by cognitive domains in the relationship between adolescents' physical fitness and academic achievements: the Cogni-Action Project

Objective

To determine how cognitive domains mediate the link between fitness components, their global score (GFS), and adolescents' academic achievement (ACA) across various school subjects.

Methods

In this study, 1,296 adolescents aged 10-14 participated. GFS was computed by three fitness components (strength, muscular, and cardiorespiratory fitness) through the ALPHA-fitness test battery. ACA was determined by five school subjects (Language, English, Mathematics, Science, and History) and two academic scores (a) "Academic Average" (five subjects) and (b) "Academic-PISA" (Language, Mathematics, and Science). A principal component analysis was performed to establish four factors (working memory [WM], cognitive flexibility [CF], inhibitory control [IC], and fluid reasoning [FR]). A parallel mediation approach was implemented with 5,000 bootstrapped samples controlled for sex, maturity, central obesity, having breakfast before cognitive tasks, schools, and school vulnerability. Total, direct, indirect effects, and mediation percentages were estimated.

Results

Overall, the finding showed a full parallel mediation effect for Language (92.5%) and English (53.9%), while a partial mediation for Mathematics (43.0%), Science (43.8%), History (45.9%), "Academic Average" (50.6%), and "Academic-PISA" (51.5%). In particular, WM, IC, and FR mediated all school subjects except mathematics, where IC was not significant. CF has not mediated any relationship between GF and academic performance.

Conclusion

This study underscores the pivotal role of cognitive domains, specifically WM, IC, and FR, in mediating the link between physical fitness and academic performance in adolescents. These insights have relevant implications for educational and public health policies.

Weight status impacts children's incidental statistical learning

The expanding literature investigating the cognitive effects of childhood weight status has not included examinations of incidental statistical learning, the process by which children unintentionally acquire knowledge about patterns in their environments, despite evidence that it underlies many higher-level information processing capabilities. In the present study, we measured event-related potentials (ERPs) while school-aged participants completed a variation of an oddball task in which stimuli predicted the appearance of a target. Children were asked to respond to the target but were not given any information about the existence of predictive dependencies. We found that children with a healthy weight status had larger P3 amplitudes in response to the predictors that were most meaningful in completing the task, a finding that may suggest optimized learning mechanisms influenced by weight status. These findings offer an important first step to understanding how healthy lifestyle factors may influence incidental statistical learning.

Six-Minute Walking Test Performance Relates to Neurocognitive Abilities in Preschoolers

This study investigated the relationship between six-minute walking test (6MWT) distance walked and preschool-aged children’s academic abilities, and behavioral and event-related potentials (ERP) indices of cognitive control. There were 59 children (25 females; age: 5.0 ± 0.6 years) who completed a 6MWT (mean distance: 449.6 ± 82.0 m) to estimate cardiorespiratory fitness. The Woodcock Johnson Early Cognitive and Academic Development Test evaluated academic abilities. A modified Eriksen flanker, hearts and flowers task, and auditory oddball task eliciting ERPs (N2, P3) assessed cognitive control. After adjusting for adiposity, diet, and demographics, linear regressions resulted in positive relationships between 6MWT distance and General Intellectual Ability (β = 0.25, Adj R² = 0.04, p = 0.04) and Expressive Language (β = 0.30, Adj R² = 0.13, p = 0.02). 6MWT distance was positively correlated with congruent accuracy (β = 0.29, Adj R² = 0.18, p < 0.01) and negatively with incongruent reaction time (β = −0.26, Adj R² = 0.05, p = 0.04) during the flanker task, and positively with homogeneous (β = 0.23, Adj R² = 0.21, p = 0.04) and heterogeneous (β = 0.26, Adj R² = 0.40, p = 0.02) accuracy on the hearts and flowers task. Higher fit children showed faster N2 latencies and greater P3 amplitudes to target stimuli; however, these were at the trend level following the adjustment of covariates. These findings indicate that the positive influence of cardiorespiratory fitness on cognitive function is evident in 4–6-year-olds.

Physical Activity and Sports Participation Associates With Cognitive Functioning and Academic Progression: An Analysis Using the Combined 2017-2018 National Survey of Children's Health

BACKGROUND

The purpose of this study was to examine the independent and joint associations between physical activity (PA) and sports participation on academic performance variables within a representative sample of children and adolescents.

METHODS

Data were analyzed from the combined 2017-2018 National Survey of Children's Health. Household addresses were randomly selected within each US state. One household parent answered health and wellness questions pertaining to one randomly selected household child (N = 37,392; 48.1% female; 6- to 17-y old). Weighted logistic regression models were employed to examine the independent and joint associations between child PA frequency and sports participation with academic performance variables, adjusting for child- and family-level covariates.

RESULTS

Child PA frequency independently associated with 37% to 46% lower odds and child sports participation independently associated with 53% lower odds of reported difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions (P < .001). For children who participated in sports, PA associated with 47% to 56% lower odds of ever repeating a grade level (P = .01).

CONCLUSIONS

Frequency of weekly PA and sports participation independently and negatively associated with difficulty concentrating, remembering, and making decisions, whereas the negative association between PA and ever repeating a grade level differed by child sports participation status.