Recreation Center Utilization Affects Academic Outcomes

This study described the association between students’ use of a university recreation center and concomitant achieved cumulative grade point average (GPA). Data were derived retrospectively from undergraduate student records from 12 consecutive months (N = 6,098). Results showed that in general, use of the recreation center on campus was beneficial to a student’s academic performance, where female students who visited the facility more often had higher GPAs on average. When GPAs were considered categorically for all students, however, those with the very lowest academic performance were characterized by a very high pattern of use, indicating that there may be a threshold benefit to center utilization.