The Relationship Between Physical Fitness Levels, Physical Activity Levels and Academic Performance in a Hispanic Middle School

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between Fit-nessGram test results, self-reported physical activity levels (PAQ-C), CST scores, and cumulative GPAs of Hispanic middle school students in a large, inner city middle school. It was hypothesized that students who scored higher on the FitnessGram and reported higher levels of daily physical activity would also achieve higher academic performance levels. The results partially support the hypothesis because positive associations were found between fitness scores and academic performance for some of the subgroups. Similar to previous studies, the association between fitness and academics appeared to be stronger for females than males. Results varied by grade level with students in the 7th grade having a strong association between Fit-nessGram scores and academic performance, whereas there were only partial associations be-tween those variables for the 6th and 8th grade students. In contrast with studies involving students in high socioeconomic areas, the results did not reveal a positive association between reported physical activity (PAQ-C results) and academic performance. This may be partially because academic performance was hampered by limited language skills. Higher levels of reported daily physical activity were positively associated with higher Fit-nessGram test scores.