Revising on the run or studying on the sofa: prospective associations between physical activity, sedentary behaviour, and exam results in British adolescents
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: We investigated prospective associations between physical activity/sedentary behaviour (PA/SED) and General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) results in British adolescents. METHODS: Exposures were objective PA/SED and self-reported sedentary behaviours (screen (TV, Internet, Computer Games)/non-screen (homework, reading)) measured in 845 adolescents (14·5y ± 0·5y; 43·6 % male). GCSE results at 16y were obtained from national records. Associations between exposures and academic performance (total exam points) were assessed using multilevel mixed-effects linear regression adjusted for mood, BMI z-score, deprivation, sex, season and school; potential interactions were investigated. RESULTS: PA was not associated with academic performance. One-hour more accelerometer-assessed SED was associated with (β(95 % CI)) 6·9(1·5,12·4) more GCSE points. An extra hour of screen time was associated with 9.3(-14·3,-4·3) fewer points whereas an extra hour of non-screen time (reading/homework) was associated with 23·1(14·6,31·6) more points. Screen time was still associated with poorer scores after adjusting for objective PA/SED and reading/homework. CONCLUSIONS: An extra hour/day of screen time at 14·5y is approximately equivalent to two fewer GCSE grades (e.g., from B to D) at 16y. Strategies to achieve the right balance between screen and non-screen time may be important for improving academic performance. Concerns that encouraging more physical activity may result in decreased academic performance seem unfounded.
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Most existing studies have used global measures of academic performance.
“Most existing studies have used global measures of academic performance [3, 37], but patterns of association may differ according to the domain of academic performance measured.”
From Electronic media use and academic performance in late childhood: A longitudinal study (2020) · cites this paper as [37]
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- Authors
- Corder, K., Atkin, A. J., Bamber, D. J., Brage, S., Dunn, V. J., Ekelund, U., Owens, M., van Sluijs, E. M. F., & Goodyer, I. M.
- Affiliations
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- University of Exeter (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Corder, Kirsten
- Venue
- International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity
- Published
- 2015-09-04
- Volume
- 12
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 106-106
- ISSN
- 1479-5868 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4559961
- OpenAlex
- W2099023585
- Cited by
- 64
- References
- 32
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 3
- FWCI
- 6.88
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UEA Digital Repository (University of East Anglia) (acceptedVersion)
- BIBSYS Brage (BIBSYS (Norway)) (acceptedVersion)
- Apollo (University of Cambridge) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- NORA - Norwegian Open Research Archives (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Wellcome Trust (074296/Z/04/Z)
- UKCRC Public Health Research Centre of Excellence
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Physical Activity and Health
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Speech and Hearing › School Health and Nursing Education
- Keywords
- physical activity, sedentary behavior, screen time, academic performance, examination results, GCSE, adolescents, homework, reading, accelerometer-measured sedentary time
- MeSH terms
- Achievement, Adolescent, Computers, Cross-Sectional Studies, Educational Measurement, Female, United Kingdom, Humans, Male, Motor Activity, Prospective Studies, Schools, Television, Exercise, Internet, Sedentary Behavior, Self Report
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