Physical Activity Performance of Focal Middle School Students

Abstract

Histograms of push-ups and curl-ups from a sample of more than 9,000 students show periodic spikes at five and 10 unit intervals. This article argues that these spikes are related to focal points, a game theoretic concept popularized by Nobel Laureate Thomas Schelling. Being focal on one test makes one more likely to be focal on the other. Focal students (whose push-up score is a multiple of 5 and whose curl-up score is a multiple of 10) behave differently from their non-focal peers. They are more likely athletic, older, and male. Focal students, on average, did 2.2 more push-ups, 1.7 more curl-ups, and ran the mile 15 seconds faster than non-focal students, even controlling for these covariates of performance. By contrast, being focal on a single activity did not produce a statistically significant mile time difference. Students who systematically stop at focal outcomes appear differentially motivated toward physical activity performance.

Keywords:

• goal-setting
• motivation
• age heaping
• regression analysis
• focal points
• coaching

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors gratefully acknowledge receiving access to the data used in this study from Pennsylvania Secretary of Health, Everette James, and his Chief of Staff, Donald Morabito. The authors benefitted from preliminary discussions with Marlin Eby, David Hummel, and Michael Johnson and comments on an early draft by Denise Eschenmann, Benjamin Greene, Gregory Smith, Haosong Wang, and anonymous reviewers. Support in preparing this article was provided by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Active Living Research program and the Jerry Richardson Family Scholarship fund.