Background: The purpose of the study was to examine the associations among cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), weight status and academic achievement in youth, and to determine if these relationships are moderated by poverty status. Methods: The sample included 5th (N = 27,791) and 8th grade (N = 16,047) South Carolina students. Academic achievement…

Purpose: Physical education (PE) is an important context for promoting health-related cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) in youth. Within PE, the lesson context and teacher behavior may be relevant for the promotion CRF; however, evidence is scarce. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to assess whether students' CRF improvement in a school year…

The adoption of compensatory movement patterns occurs when limitations in mobility, stability, or motor control prevent proper motion from occurring. These dysfunctional movements may inhibit fundamental motor skill development and negatively influence perceived movement competence, impeding the development of physical literacy. Therefore, this…

Background: The use of fitness tests in physical education (PE) receives extensive scrutiny and represents one of the most fiercely debated topics in PE research. Fitness test proponents often provide unwavering support citing their positive long-term benefits while critics underscore the corrosive long-term pitfalls associated with their use in…

Purpose: This study examined the prevalence of different weight status and the relationships between weight status and physical fitness among Chinese children and youth. Methods: Participants were 107,206 Grade 4 children and 70,213 Grade 8 youth from the China National Assessment of Educational Quality -- Physical Education & Health in 2015…

Purpose: Physical education (PE) in school provides opportunities for physical activity (PA) engagement and reportedly results in improved health-related fitness. This study explored the underlying correlations between PE and activity-related healthy lifestyle practices with current level of cardiorespiratory fitness. Methods: A total of 13,138…

Purpose: To summarize the framework and development procedure of the China National Assessment of Education Quality - Physical Education & Health in 2015 (CNAEQ-PEH 2015), an authoritative and evidence-based national surveillance protocol developed by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China for Grade 4 and Grade 8 students.…

Purpose: This study examined the agreement between estimated peak oxygen consumption (VO[subscript 2peak]) obtained from the Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run (PACER) fitness test and equated PACER laps derived from One-Mile Run time (MR). Methods: A sample of 680 participants (324 boys and 356 girls) in Grades 7 through 12…

Background: Knowledge about the beneficial role of physical activity (PA) for health and school performance is growing. Studies investigating the link between PA and school absenteeism due to illness are lacking. Therefore, we investigated associations between habitual PA and school absenteeism due to illness in adolescents and explored whether…

Background: Research on physical fitness often regards socioeconomic status (SES) as a confounding factor. However, few studies investigate the impact of SES on fitness. This study investigated the impact of SES on physical fitness in both males and females, with an economic-based construct of SES. Methods: The sample consisted of 954 6th, 7th,…

The purpose of the study was to analyze students' motivation in relation to their participation in fitness testing classes. Participants were 134 Finnish Grade 5 and 8 students. Students completed the contextual motivation and perceived physical competence scales before the fitness testing class and the situational motivation questionnaire…

The purpose of this case study was to examine the relationship between sports participation and health-related physical fitness in middle school and high school students. Health-related physical fitness was measured using the Fitnessgram test battery to assess healthy fitness zone (HFZ) achievement in five areas: body composition, muscular…

A wide variety of school-based physical activity contexts have been recently associated with various measures of academic performance. Of these studies, a small number employing objective measures of student fitness have identified a relationship with academic achievements. However, even among these studies, the fitness-academic link has not been…

In partnership with three universities, the Cooper Institute, Dallas, completed the Texas Youth Fitness Study from 2008 to 2009. The study explored three key questions: (1) Is physical fitness associated with academic performance?; (2) Can physical education teachers collect high-quality information on student fitness?; and (3) Are school policies…

This study uncovers the predictive relationship of middle school students' ability beliefs (self-efficacy and expectancy-related beliefs) and incentives (outcome expectancy, importance, interest, and usefulness) to intention, cardiovascular fitness, and teacher-rated effort in physical education. Participants (N = 252; 118 boys, 134 girls)…