Factors that Influence Academic Performance in Physical Education

The objective of this study was to determine the predictive function that different variables (physical self-concept, task orientation, engaging in extracurricular physical activity and reasons for engaging in this type of activity) have on academic performance in the physical education class. The participants were 568 primary and compulsory secondary students between the ages of 11 and 16 from eight public primary schools, one public secondary school and two primary and secondary schools in the Region of Valencia who responded to the Physical Activity Questionnaire for Adolescents, the Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire, the Physical Self-concept Questionnaire and the Motives for Physical Activity Measure-Revised (MPAM-R) in Spanish. Descriptive, correlational and multiple linear regression analyses were performed and an explanatory predictive model of academic performance in the physical education class was proposed, based on the results. The results of the path analysis indicated that the proposed model showed adequate goodness of fit indices. Thus, the reasons for practicing physical activity and goal orientation towards the task determine the physical activity index and the general physical self-concept, which, in turn, affect academic performance in physical education.