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arXiv · 2609.32982

Protocol for an Observational Study on the Effects of Adolescent Physical Activity and Sports Participation on Flourishing and Academic Engagement

William Bekerman·Rebecca E. Hasson·Leah E. Robinson·Dylan S. Small
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Abstract

The wide-ranging benefits of physical activity and sports participation among children and adolescents have been closely examined and are reported to include improvements in physical and mental health, cognitive functioning, and social connectedness. However, it remains largely unknown how these activities may affect flourishing and academic engagement, which are closely tied to long-term success, health, and well-being, and how these patterns evolved before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic. In this article, we provide the protocol for an observational study using data from the National Survey of Children's Health to examine these relationships among American adolescents. To strengthen our findings, we will conduct this investigation across three different time periods, allowing us to assess the replicability of our conclusions. We introduce a novel statistical design, called data turnover, to carry out this analysis. Data turnover allows a single group of statisticians and domain experts to work together to assess the strength of evidence gathered across multiple data splits while incorporating both qualitative and quantitative findings from data exploration. We delineate our analysis plan using this new method and conclude with a brief discussion of additional considerations for our study.

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William Bekerman, Rebecca E. Hasson, Leah E. Robinson, Dylan S. Small. 2026-09-26. Protocol for an Observational Study on the Effects of Adolescent Physical Activity and Sports Participation on Flourishing and Academic Engagement. https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.32982

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