Kantomaa, Marko T., Stamatakis, Emmanuel, Kankaanpaa, Anna , Kaakinen, Marika, Rodriguez, Alina, Taanila, Anja, Ahonen, Timo, Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Tammelin, Tuija (2013) Physical activity and obesity mediate the association between childhood motor function and adolescents' academic achievement. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110 (5). pp. 1917-1922. ISSN 1091-6490
Full content URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1214574110
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Item Type: | Article |
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Item Status: | Live Archive |
Abstract
The global epidemic of obesity and physical inactivity may have detrimental implications for young people’s cognitive function and academic achievement. This prospective study investigated whether childhood motor function predicts later academic achievement via physical activity, fitness, and obesity. The study sample included 8,061 children from the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1986, which contains data about parent-reported motor function at age 8 y and self-reported physical activity, predicted cardiorespiratory fitness (cycle ergometer test), obesity (body weight and height), and academic achievement (grades) at age 16 y. Structural equation models with unstandardized (B) and standardized (β) coefficients were used to test whether, and to what extent, physical activity, cardiorespiratory fitness, and obesity at age 16 mediated the association between childhood motor function and adolescents’ academic achievement. Physical activity was associated with a higher grade-point average, and obesity was associated with a lower grade-point average in adolescence. Furthermore, compromised motor function in childhood had a negative indirect effect on adolescents’ academic achievement via physical inactivity (B = –0.023, 95% confidence interval = –0.031, –0.015) and obesity (B = –0.025, 95% confidence interval = –0.039, –0.011), but not via cardiorespiratory fitness. These results suggest that physical activity and obesity may mediate the association between childhood motor function and adolescents’ academic achievement. Compromised motor function in childhood may represent an important factor driving the effects of obesity and physical inactivity on academic underachievement.
Keywords: | academic performance, Exercise, motor skills, overweight |
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Subjects: | C Biological Sciences > C820 Developmental Psychology A Medicine and Dentistry > A990 Medicine and Dentistry not elsewhere classified |
Divisions: | College of Social Science > School of Psychology |
ID Code: | 22927 |
Deposited On: | 27 Apr 2016 14:54 |
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