ArticleMedicine and science in sports and exercise2019
The Longitudinal Associations of Fitness and Motor Skills with Academic Achievement.
Article in Medicine and science in sports and exercise, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The Influence of Motor Competence on Broader Aspects of Health: A Systematic Review of the Longitudinal Associations Between Motor Competence and Cognitive and Social-Emotional Outcomes.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2024Pooled it
- Motor development-focused exercise training enhances gross motor skills more effectively than ordinary physical activity in healthy preschool children: an updated meta-analysis.Frontiers in public health · 2024Pooled it
- Effects of Resistance Training on Academic Outcomes in School-Aged Youth: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2023Pooled it
- 24-hour movement behaviors in association with academic performance in children and adolescents: cross-sectional compositional data analysis.Journal of activity, sedentary and sleep behaviors · 2026Article
- The prediction model of academic achievement based on cardiorespiratory fitness and BMI status for ninth-grade students.BMC pediatrics · 2025Article
- Relation between motor competence and academic achievement: The mediating role of fitness and cognition in boys and girls.PloS one · 2025Article
- Relationships between Motor Skills and Academic Achievement in School-Aged Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Structural architecture and brain network efficiency link polygenic scores to intelligence.Human brain mapping · 2023Article
- Time outdoors positively associates with academic performance: a school-based study with objective monitoring of outdoor time.BMC public health · 2023Article
- Cardiorespiratory Fitness, Motor Coordination, and Academic Achievement in School Students (11-13 years).Global pediatric health · 2023Article
- Physical fitness characteristics and neck and shoulder pain incidence in school-aged children-A 2-year follow-up.Health science reports · 2022Article
- Physical activity, screen time and the incidence of neck and shoulder pain in school-aged children.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Physical activity and aerobic fitness in relation to local and interhemispheric functional connectivity in adolescents' brains.Brain and behavior · 2021Article
- The Shirom-Melamed Vigor Measure for Students: Factorial Analysis and Construct Validity in Spanish Undergraduate University Students.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeThis study aimed to examine both independent and dependent longitudinal associations of physical fitness (PF) components with academic achievement.
methodsA total of 954 fourth to seventh graders (9-15 yr [Mage = 12.5 yr], 52% girls) from nine schools throughout Finland participated in a 2-yr follow-up study. Register-based academic achievement scores (grade point average [GPA]) and PF were assessed in the spring of 2013-2015. Aerobic fitness was measured with a maximal 20-m shuttle run test, muscular fitness with curl-up and push-up tests, and motor skills with a 5-leaps test and a throwing-catching combination test. Structural equation modeling was applied to examine the longitudinal associations adjusting for age, gender, pubertal stage, body fat percentage, learning difficulties, and mother's education.
resultsThe changes in aerobic and muscular fitness were positively associated with the changes in GPA (B = 0.27, 99% confidence interval [CI] = 0.06-0.48; B = 0.36, 99% CI = 0.11-0.63, respectively), whereas the changes in motor skills were not associated with the changes in GPA. Better motor skills in year 2 predicted better GPA a year later (B = 0.06, 99% CI = 0.00-0.11; B = 0.06, 99% CI = 0.01-0.11), whereas aerobic and muscular fitness did not predict GPA. GPA in year 1 predicted both aerobic (B = 0.08, 99% CI = 0.01-0.15) and muscular (B = 0.08, 99% CI = 0.02-0.15) fitness, and motor skills (B = 0.08, 99% CI = 0.02-0.15) a year later.
conclusionThe changes in both aerobic and muscular fitness were positively associated with the changes in academic achievement during adolescence, whereas the changes in motor skills had only borderline significant association. However, better motor skills, although not systematically, independently predicted better academic achievement 1 yr later, whereas aerobic or muscular fitness did not. Better academic achievement predicted better motor skills, aerobic fitness, and muscular fitness. Developmental changes in adolescence may induce parallel and simultaneous changes in academic achievement and PF.
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