Do physical activity and virtues predict school grades?

Abstract

Many factors predict adolescents' school grades, two of which may be character strengths and physical activity. We investigated 339 adolescents (130 boys, 185 girls, two diverse, 22 missing data) between 10 and 21 years old (M = 14.92, SD = 2.28). They filled out questionnaires regarding their character strengths, extracurricular physical activity, math, language, and sports grades. The 24 character strengths were summarized into the virtues of wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence. Math grades were positively predicted by the virtues of courage and temperance and negatively by age and justice. Girls and younger pupils reported better language grades. Sports grades were predicted by extracurricular physical activity and courage. Better sports grades were found in pupils who were members of a sports club and practiced their sports longer. In particular, courage, which consists of bravery, perseverance, honesty, and zest, is an essential predictor of adolescents' math and sports grades.