TY - JOUR
T1 - “Why Can’t You Sit Still?”: The Effect of Daily Physical Activity on Childhood Inattention/Hyperactivity and the Educational Gender Gap
AU - Chen, Kelly
AU - Phipps, Shelley
N1 - Chen, Kelly and Phipps, Shelley. (2021). "“Why Can’t You Sit Still?”: The Effect of Daily Physical Activity on Childhood Inattention/Hyperactivity and the Educational Gender Gap". Social Science & Medicine, 284, 114232. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114232
PY - 2021/9/1
Y1 - 2021/9/1
N2 - Despite the compelling evidence of the long-run consequences of childhood inattention/hyperactivity and harmful side effects of stimulant medication, relatively little is known about accessible non-pharmacological options to reduce inattentive/hyperactive behaviours. This study evaluates the effect of daily exercise on inattentive/hyperactive behaviours among young children by leveraging evidence from a quasi-experiment generated when 3 Canadian provinces adopted mandatory requirements for all students in grades 1 through 6 to participate in 20–30 min of daily physical activity at school between 1994 and 2009. By exploiting plausibly exogenous variations in the timing of implementation and duration of physical activity mandated as well as over 20,000 observations on a sample of nationally representative children, our difference-in-differences estimates indicate that brief bouts of daily exercise at school effectively reduce inattention/hyperactivity in children – with the beneficial effect enhanced by the duration of exercise mandated. Importantly, most of the exercise effect is concentrated on boys. Since boys' higher rates of inattention/hyperactivity contribute to the explanation for boys’ lagging academic motivation and achievement, we argue that providing more scope for physical activity during the school day might be a feasible policy option not only for reducing inattentive/hyperactive behaviours, but also for helping to close the educational gender gap in the longer run.
AB - Despite the compelling evidence of the long-run consequences of childhood inattention/hyperactivity and harmful side effects of stimulant medication, relatively little is known about accessible non-pharmacological options to reduce inattentive/hyperactive behaviours. This study evaluates the effect of daily exercise on inattentive/hyperactive behaviours among young children by leveraging evidence from a quasi-experiment generated when 3 Canadian provinces adopted mandatory requirements for all students in grades 1 through 6 to participate in 20–30 min of daily physical activity at school between 1994 and 2009. By exploiting plausibly exogenous variations in the timing of implementation and duration of physical activity mandated as well as over 20,000 observations on a sample of nationally representative children, our difference-in-differences estimates indicate that brief bouts of daily exercise at school effectively reduce inattention/hyperactivity in children – with the beneficial effect enhanced by the duration of exercise mandated. Importantly, most of the exercise effect is concentrated on boys. Since boys' higher rates of inattention/hyperactivity contribute to the explanation for boys’ lagging academic motivation and achievement, we argue that providing more scope for physical activity during the school day might be a feasible policy option not only for reducing inattentive/hyperactive behaviours, but also for helping to close the educational gender gap in the longer run.
KW - ADHD
KW - educational gender gap
KW - elementary school-aged children
KW - inattentive/hyperactive behavior
KW - physical activity
KW - rbi-relevant
UR - https://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/econ_facpubs/71
M3 - Article
JO - Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations
JF - Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations
ER -