Assessment of academic performance of licensed athletes

Zehra Aycan; Sinem Akgül; Selçuk Gençay; Nuray Kanbur; Orhan Derman

doi:10.1515/ijamh-2019-0184

Artikel

Assessment of academic performance of licensed athletes

Zehra Aycan , Sinem Akgül , Selçuk Gençay , Nuray Kanbur und Orhan Derman

Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 2. November 2020

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Aus der Zeitschrift International Journal of Adolescent Medicine and Health Band 33 Heft 6

Abstract

Objectives

Physical activity and sports can be used to reduce stress and anxiety by increasing aerobic capacity and muscle endurance, gain positive behavioral changes and improve their self-discipline, use time well, adopt positive lifestyle such as regular eating and sleeping, which will result in an increase in school success. There are no comprehensive study that examines the academic performance of licensed student athletes and the factors influencing their success rates. The aim of this study was to evaluate the academic performance and related factors in licensed athletes.

Methods

One hundred eleven licensed athletes at junior high school level were enrolled. Participants filled out questionnaires specifically designed to assess for factors affecting academic performance, where personal and familial factors as well as school performance was taken into consideration. Their academic success rates were evaluated out of mean grade points before as well as after professional sports activities. Academic fields that were graded were, namely, mathematics, life sciences, language, and grammar studies as well as social sciences. Fifty one of participants lived in Ankara (Group 1) and the other 60 lived in Kahramanmaraş (Group 2). The effects of sport and other factors that may affect school success in all groups and between the groups were evaluated before and after sports.

Results

The age of the athletes were 14.1 ± 2.3 years, 49.5% were male. The grades of athletes before they started competing in professional sports were 80.4 ± 10.6 for mathematics, 80.5 ± 12.5 for sciences, 82.7 ± 9.5 for language studies, and 83.6 ± 9.3 for social sciences. Following a mean period of 4.3 ± 3.1 years of professional sports, the grades of athletes were, with the same order for respective discipline were, 81.6 ± 10.9, 82.4 ± 11.9, 84.3 ± 9.4, and 85.5 ± 8.5. Following sports activities, academic performance in life sciences, language, and grammar studies as well as social sciences showed a significant improvement where grades for mathematics did not show any significant change (p=0.054). The most important factor that improves school performance is the financial status of the family. In Group 1 demonstrated grade improvements following sports activities only in social sciences, whereas Group 2 athletes showed such an improvement for all the disciplines (p<0.05).

Conclusions

Licensed athletes’ school success during the junior high school period showed a significant increase after sports in this study. The most important factors that affected the academic performance were the socioeconomic status of the family.

Keywords: academic performance; licended athletes; sports

Corresponding author: Professor Zehra Aycan, Clinics of Pediatric Endocrinology, Dr. Sami Ulus Research and Training Hospital of Women’s and Children’s Health and Diseases, Ankara University School of Medicine, Altındağ, 06100, Ankara, Turkey, Phone: +90 312 305 65 08, Fax: +90 312 317 03 53, E-mail: zehraaaycan67@hotmail.com

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express their gratitude to the adolescents who bravely participated in this study.

Research funding: None declared.
Author contributions: All authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission.
Competing interests: Authors state no conflict of interest.

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Received: 2019-08-26

Accepted: 2019-09-15

Published Online: 2020-11-02

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Artikel in diesem Heft

https://doi.org/10.1515/ijamh-2019-0184

Schlagwörter für diesen Artikel

academic performance; licended athletes; sports