The Association of Physical Activity and Academic Behavior: A Systematic Review

BACKGROUNDIn this systematic review, we assessed the existing research describing the effects of physical activity (PA) on academic behavior, with a special focus on the effectiveness of the treatments applied, study designs, outcome measures, and results. METHODSWe obtained data from various journal search engines and 218 journal articles were downloaded that were relevant to PA and academic performance topics. The abstracts of all the articles were independently peer reviewed to assess whether they met the inclusion criteria for further analysis. The literature search was ongoing. Of the reviewed articles, 9 were chosen on the topic of PA effects on academic behavior. Each article was analyzed and summarized using a standard summary template. RESULTSOverall, PA interventions commonly found positive effects on academic behavior, with few exceptions. There were additional unique findings regarding differences in outcome measures and PA treatments. CONCLUSIONSThe findings from these studies are significant and support the implementation or continuation of PA in schools to improve academic behavior and associated performance. More research needs to be conducted using the effective aspects of the treatments from this review with consistent outcome measures.