Purpose
The project aims to understand how physical activity might be related to mental health and academic achievement, and how this develops in course of the three years at lower secondary school
Project description
The project was organised as a prospective cohort study, which tracked pupils from 11 schools annually, from 8th grade through to 10th grade.
The measurements conducted were: seven days objectively measured activity level using an accelerometer, a questionnaire, anthropometrical measurements, school grades.
Results
Results from the project shows physical activity to be weakly correlated with mental wellbeing. No associations between physical activity and mental health problems, or between physical activity and academic achievement were found, neither in cross-sectional, nor longitudinal data.
Paper 1: Physical activity, mental health and academic achievement: A cross-sectional study of Norwegian adolescent
Paper 2: Physical activity and academic achievement among Norwegian adolescents: Findings from a longitudinal study.
Paper 3: The longitudinal association between objectively measured physical activity and mental health among Norwegian adolescents