Nicholas Bailon

Abstract:

Physical activity is commonly known to be positively correlated with academic performance and mild stress reduction (Wunsch et al, 2017, p. 117-126)(Trudeau and Shephard, 2008, p. 10). However, certain data has supported the idea that excessive physical activity has a quadratic relationship with these variables, meaning it will eventually hurt academic performance and could cause stress. It is important to find at what point physical activity is most beneficial before it has the inverse effect. This necessitates the question: to what extent is physical activity the most optimal in improving academics and mild stress reduction? The population of the study is high schoolers in Allegheny County. This is because high schoolers worry about academic performance and academic stress while also being physically active with different sports and activities. The study is limited to this population because of the restricted capability of reaching participants beyond Allegheny County. While selecting a method, a correlational approach appeared to properly access relationships between variables. Information pertaining to the variables was collected through an online survey. Ratios and averages would represent data before putting it onto a graph and deriving a negative quadratic equation to find the vertices. From this, the highest chance of receiving all or mostly A’s was found at 2.3 hours of activity each day and 4.3 days each week. Participants never active showed the lowest stress and highest stress was found at 2.39 hours and 4.95 days. This data represents an imbalance between high academic achievement and low academic stress