Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviors and Academic Grades

Key findings

Compared to students with lower grades, students with higher grades are more likely to:

• Engage in physical activity for at least 60 minutes per day on all 7 days.

• Play on at least one sports team.

Compared to students with lower grades, students with higher grades are less likely to:

• Watch television for 3 or more hours per day.

• Play video games or use a computer 3 or more hours per day.

The findings do not show that academic grades are associated with participation in physical education classes on all 5 days.

Figure 1A: YRBS 2019*

Sedentary behaviors, by type of academic grades earned—United States, Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 2019*

Summary

• 24% of U.S. high school students with mostly A's were physically active for at least 60 minutes per day on all 7 days of the week. This compares to 20% of students with mostly D's/F's.
• 66% of U.S. high school students with mostly A’s played on at least one sports team. (The team was run by their school or community groups during the 12 months before the survey.) This compares to 42% of students with D's/F’s.
• 26% of U.S. high school students with mostly A’s attended physical education classes on all 5 days of the school week. This compares to 23% of students with mostly D's/F's.

Figure 1B: YRBS 2019*

Sedentary behaviors, by type of academic grades earned—United States, Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 2019*

Summary

Findings refer to responses for an average school day.

• 15% of U.S. high school students with mostly A's watched television for 3 or more hours daily. This compares to 28% of students with mostly D's/F's.
• 41% of U.S. high school students with mostly A’s played video games or used a computer for 3 more hours per day. (This applies to game or computer use not related to schoolwork.) This percentage compares to 54% of students with mostly D's/F’s.

Disclaimer

*Figure 1A and Figure 1B illustrate the percentage of students who engaged in each health-related behavior, by type of grades mostly earned in school (mostly A’s, B’s, C’s, D’s/F’s) (row proportions). The percentage of students who did not engage in each health-related behavior are not shown.

However, the percentages of students who did and did not engage in each health-related behavior (by grades earned) sum to 100%. Analyses controlling for sex, race/ethnicity, and grade in school confirmed a significant association between physical activity/sedentary behaviors and academic grades.

Conclusions

These YRBS results show evidence of a significant association between physical activity or sedentary behaviors and academic grades. Further research could help determine:

• Whether higher grades in school lead to physical activity behaviors.
• If some other factors lead to these physical activity behaviors.
• If physical activity behaviors lead to higher grades.
• Whether lower grades in school lead to sedentary behaviors.
• If some other factors lead to these sedentary behaviors.
• If sedentary behaviors lead to lower grades.

There is a close relationship between health and education. Working together, education and health agencies, parents, and communities can ensure that students are healthy and ready to learn in school. Find out more about the connection between health and academic achievement on CDC’s Health and Academics web page.

About the data

The Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) monitors health-related behaviors among youth and adults in the United States. In particular, YRBSS monitors behaviors that contribute to the leading causes of death, disability, and social problems.

YRBS is conducted every 2 years during the spring. YRBS provides data representative of students in grades 9–12 in public and private schools nationwide. In 2019, students completing the YRBS were asked, “During the past 12 months, how would you describe your grades in school?” Students had seven response options (mostly A’s, mostly B’s, mostly C’s, mostly D’s, mostly F’s, none of these grades, not sure).

In 2019, YRBS results showed that:

• 38.0% of students received mostly A’s.
• 37.1% received mostly B’s. 1
• 6.0% received mostly C’s.
• 4.6% received mostly D’s or F’s.
• 4.3% reported receiving none of these grades or were not sure.

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