To investigate the relationships among senior high-school students’ sports participation, academic performance and daily time allocation, this paper conducted a questionnaire survey among students from two local ordinary senior high schools, and 400 valid questionnaires were collected. Taking weekly sports participation duration as the core independent variable and students’ academic performance as the outcome variable, this study incorporated time indicators including study, leisure and sleep into time-allocation analysis. After controlling for gender, grade, boarding status and family learning atmosphere, descriptive statistics, inter-group difference tests, correlation and regression analyses as well as mediating-effect tests were adopted. The results revealed significant differences across sports participation groups in daily study, leisure and sleep hours as well as average academic scores. The moderate participation group obtained higher average scores and longer daily study hours with relatively less leisure time, whereas the high-participation group reported fewer study and sleep hours. An inverted-U trend was observed between sports participation and academic performance. Nevertheless, as this is a cross-sectional survey, such trend only reflects correlation patterns within the sample instead of establishing direct causal effects of sports participation on academic achievement. Further mediating-effect analysis indicated that time allocation exerted a certain mediating effect between sports participation and academic performance. The findings suggest that reasonably arranged physical activity does not necessarily create a simple trade-off against study time; moderate participation may be accompanied by more organized daily time use. Corresponding suggestions are put forward from school, family and student perspectives accordingly.
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Yue, Q., Dawson, A., Lopez-Espejo, C., Ferri, E., Bunmi-Adedayo, Y. (2026) A Study on the Impacts of High‑school Students’ Sports Participation on Their Academic Performance and Time Allocation. Global Education Bulletin, 3(4), 60-66.