Academic achievement and involvement in hockey: a post-hoc longitudinal study

Academic achievement, absenteeism, and athletic involvement (hockey) data were collected on 484 boys throughout British Columbia. School and minor hockey records were used to obtain longitudinal data for each boy from Grade 1 until high school graduation or school withdrawal. Results indicated that hockey players exhibit less school absenteeism than non hockey players, but are not different with respect to grade point averages. Hockey players, at the juvenile level or lower, tend to attain a slightly higher grade point average during the years they are playing hockey in comparison with their academic achievement during the years they are not playing hockey. Of the hockey players with lower than average I.Q.'s, those who exhibit poor achievement tend to drop out of hockey earlier than those who have average or above average grades.