Physical Activity, Cognition and Academic Performance: An Analysis of Mediating and Confounding Relationships in Primary School Children

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aut.relation.issue936en_NZ
aut.relation.journalBMC Public Healthen_NZ
aut.relation.volume18en_NZ
aut.researcherDuncan, Scott
dc.contributor.authorMcPherson, Aen_NZ
dc.contributor.authorMackay, Len_NZ
dc.contributor.authorKunkel, Jen_NZ
dc.contributor.authorDuncan, Sen_NZ
dc.date.accessioned2021-04-09T03:15:03Z
dc.date.available2021-04-09T03:15:03Z
dc.date.copyright2018en_NZ
dc.date.issued2018en_NZ
dc.description.abstractBackground: Exploring the relationship between physical activity, cognition and academic performance in children is an important but developing academic field. One of the key tasks for researchers is explaining how the three factors interact. The aim of this study was to develop and test a conceptual model that explains the associations among physical activity, cognition, academic performance, and potential mediating factors in children. Methods: Data were sourced from 601 New Zealand children aged 6-11 years. Weekday home, weekday school, and weekend physical activity was measured by multiple pedometer step readings, cognition by four measures from the CNS Vital Signs assessment, and academic performance from the New Zealand Ministry of Education electronic Assessment Tools for Teaching and Learning (e-asTTle) reading and maths scores. A Structured Equation Modelling approach was used to test two models of variable relationships. The first model analysed the physical activity-academic performance relationship, and the second model added cognition to determine the mediating effect of cognition on the physical activity-academic performance association. Multigroup analysis was used to consider confounding effects of gender, ethnicity and school socioeconomic decile status. Results: The initial model identified a significant association between physical activity and academic performance (r = 0.225). This direct association weakened (r = 0.121) when cognition was included in the model, demonstrating a partial mediating effect of cognition. While cognition was strongly associated with academic performance (r = 0.750), physical activity was also associated with cognition (r = 0.138). Subgroups showed similar patterns to the full sample, but the smaller group sizes limited the strength of the conclusions. Conclusions: This cross-sectional study demonstrates a direct association between physical activity and academic performance. Furthermore, and importantly, this study shows the relationship between physical activity and academic performance is supported by an independent relationship between physical activity and cognition. Larger sample sizes are needed to investigate confounding factors of gender, age, socioeconomic status, and ethnicity. Future longitudinal analyses could investigate whether increases in physical activity can improve both cognition and academic performance.en_NZ
dc.identifier.citationBMC Public Health, 18(1), 1-9.
dc.identifier.doi10.1186/s12889-018-5863-1en_NZ
dc.identifier.issn1471-2458en_NZ
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10292/14107
dc.publisherBioMed Central
dc.relation.urihttps://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-018-5863-1
dc.rights© The Author(s). 2018 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
dc.rights.accessrightsOpenAccessen_NZ
dc.subjectPhysical activity; Cognition; Academic performance; School; Children; Mediation; SEM; Multigroup analysis
dc.titlePhysical Activity, Cognition and Academic Performance: An Analysis of Mediating and Confounding Relationships in Primary School Childrenen_NZ
dc.typeJournal Article
pubs.elements-id343348
pubs.organisational-data/AUT
pubs.organisational-data/AUT/Faculty of Health & Environmental Science
pubs.organisational-data/AUT/Faculty of Health & Environmental Science/School of Sport & Recreation
pubs.organisational-data/AUT/Faculty of Health & Environmental Science/School of Sport & Recreation/Physical Activity, Nutrition & the Outdoors Department
pubs.organisational-data/AUT/Faculty of Health & Environmental Science/School of Sport & Recreation/Sports Performance Research Institute New Zealand
pubs.organisational-data/AUT/Faculty of Health & Environmental Science/School of Sport & Recreation/Sports Performance Research Institute New Zealand/Human Potential Research Group
pubs.organisational-data/AUT/PBRF
pubs.organisational-data/AUT/PBRF/PBRF Health and Environmental Sciences
pubs.organisational-data/AUT/PBRF/PBRF Health and Environmental Sciences/HS Sports & Recreation 2018 PBRF
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