Health-related physical fitness, academic achievement, and neuroelectric measures in children and adolescents

The association between health-related physical fitness and academic achievement has captured the interest of educators and researchers. The purpose of this review is to examine the relationships between health-related physical fitness and academic achievement among children and adolescents, as well as to assess the association between health-related physical fitness and event-related potentials indicative of neurocognitive processes. Cardiorespiratory fitness was positively associated with performance in the majority of academic subjects as well as with core neurocognitive processes that are foundational to scholastic performance. The association among muscular strength, muscular endurance, and flexibility with academic achievement was less consistent. As expected, body mass index (a surrogate measure of body composition) was negatively associated with academic scores in the majority of academic subjects as well as being predictive of impaired attentional resource allocation and inefficient action monitoring. These findings suggest differential relationships between components of health-related fitness and academic achievement as well as underlying neurocognitive processes. Future research regarding the effect of multiple aspects of health-related physical fitness on youth’s academic achievement and adopting a neuroelectric perspective is warranted.