Physical Activity and School Performance: Evidence from a Danish Randomised School-Intervention Study

ABSTRACT

It has been claimed that physical activity has a positive effect on not only health but also on school performance. Using data from a randomised school-intervention study, this paper investigates whether different interventions promoting physical activity affect school performance in primary school children. The results indicate that on average, the interventions have a very limited beneficial impact on the pupils’ performance. The effects are mostly insignificant, and in some cases even negative. These results are relevant when considering how general school resources and resources targeted towards physical activity in particular should be invested to improve school performance.

KEYWORDS:

• School performance
• physical activity
• randomised school-based intervention
• difference-in-differences

Acknowledgements

The Danish Gymnastics and Sports Associations in Northern Jutland and the Danish Municipality of Aalborg have contributed with data collection.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

The article was funded by a grant for the research project “Structural Factors in Relation to Youth Behaviour, Lifestyle, and Health” from the Danish Council for Independent Research [grant number 12-127741].Project 3A, the randomized intervention study, was funded by Aalborg University, the Danish Health Insurance Foundation [grant number 2008A003], the Danish TrygFonden Foundation [grant number 5556-07], and the Danish Obel Family Foundation [grant number 12664]. The Danish Gymnastics and Sports Associations (DGI) in Northern Jutland and the Danish Municipality of Aalborg.