High School Sport Participation Intensity and Breadth

The purpose of this study was to address the gap in research related to whether measures of participation (intensity and breadth) demonstrated a relationship with academic achievement for 11th grade student athletes (N=128) in a rural Midwestern high school. Anonymous athletic participation and achievement data from 2015-2017 was obtained from the school’s archive and analyzed by correlation, hierarchical regression, and one-way ANOVA. Data derived from statistical analyses demonstrated two outcomes regarding sport participation, ACT, and GPA: (a) Intensity demonstrated no statistical significance to student achievement measured by ACT, however intensity demonstrated a statistically significant relationship to cumulative GPA (p < .05), and (b) ANOVA analysis demonstrated statistically significant differences in breadth and GPA (p < .01) between one sport athletes and three sport athletes. Three sport athletes had statistically significantly higher GPAs than one sport athletes and significantly higher GPAs than two sport athletes. The research was limited to one cross-sectional heterogeneous rural high school population of participants over a three-year period. Furthermore, the study was limited to school-specific athletic participation data as school non-athletic activity and out-of-school activity participation was not available. Results from this study suggest programming and potential practice recommendations for rural school leaders. Future research on ESA sport, activity, and non-school activity participation intensity and breadth related to academic outcomes is justified.