All of the articles and studies mentioned thus far favor the positive relationship of exercise and academic performance. However, there are many debates and opposing theories such as parental rules, athlete personas, and genetics/fetal nutrition. Some believe that the results indicate that athletic children have an academic advantage simply because parents allow higher academic performing children to participate in more sports while forbidding the sport activity of poor academic performing children (Linder, 1999)(Linder, 2002). Also, as mentioned in the “Study Limitations” athlete personas may exist. Athletes may be different already as a group before they participated in sport so sport isn’t the affecting factor; people with certain skills will be good and attracted to physical activity as well as academic learning (Geron, 1996). The final conflicts are genetic factors and/or fetal nutrition, which “could be responsible for [good or] poor development of both the musculoskeletal and nervous systems” (Dwyer, Sallis, Blizzard, Lazarus, & Dean, 2001). The studies mentioned throughout this paper are only a fraction of the research performed on physical activity and academic performance; more research has been and will continue to be completed.
By Leslee Scheuer, Tech Impact Grant Coordinator, University of Central Florida, 2003/2004