A Multivariate Study for Determining the Relationship Between Physical Activity, Physical Fitness, and Academic Performance

The relationship between physical activity, physical fitness, and academic performance has been widely studied internationally. However, reports of this relationship are contradictory, and its impact is still a matter of controversy. For that reason, the current research determined the correlation between these three variables in a group of 56 female and 48 male Colombian students with an average age of 14.08 ± 0.89 years. A quantitative, correlational, and cross-sectional study was carried out. The physical activity was evaluated using PAQ-A questionnaire. For physical fitness, six tests from the Euro fitness battery were used. The academic performance in Spanish, Math, Natural, and Social Sciences were obtained from the grades for the participants at the end of the academic year. Correlations were determined by multivariate multiple linear regression. The obtained results suggest that aerobic endurance test had effect in the studied variables, whereas the correlation of the other tested predictors did not show any meaningful statistical result. In fact, academic performance is not affected by the physical fitness of the students at the time course grades were measured.