A Longitudinal Study of the Relationship between Physical Fitness and Academic Achievement in Primary School Children
Keywords:
Primary School Children, Distance Run, Academic AchievementAbstract
This study aimed to examine the causal relationship between physical fitness, distance run, and academic achievement of Mathematics and English of primary school children in grade 4-6 during three academic years, 2017-2019. A total of 170 fourth graders of the demonstration school of Ramkhamhaeng University was randomly selected to participated in a 3-years follow-up study. Registered-based academic achievement scores and physical fitness were assessed in the second semester of academic year 2017-2019. Distance run was measured with a maximal 1,200 meter run test having content validity and reliability of 0.825. The latent growth curve modeling was applied to analyze the causal relationship between a physical fitness and two subject achievements with gender as a covariate. The results revealed that gender and distance run had a significant influence on Mathematics and English scores of primary school children. An increase in distance run in each year resulted in a greater improvement in Mathematics (βF2 F4 = -.48, p = .001) and in English scores (βF2 F6= -.32, p = .004). Boys had improvement in distance run higher than in girls (βG F2 = -.20, p = .006). Effects of distance run on Mathematics achievement were stronger in boys (βG F4 = -.26, p = .008) than in girls. Whereas effects of distance run on English scores were stronger in girls (βG F6 = .12, p = .021) than in boys during three academic years. The findings indicated the importance of physical fitness which affects students’ academic achievements. The primary school administrators should support physical education teachers and a school health nurse to evaluate standard physical fitness including health examination continuously in primary school children in every academic year.
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