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Relationship Between a Healthy Lifestyle and Academic Achievement

Sarah Mazzur

Department of Psychology, Seton Hill University

SPY 402: Psychology Research and Applications

Dr. Elizabeth Jacobs

December 9, 2021

Author Note

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Sarah Mazzur. Email:

s.mazzur@setonhill.edu
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Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact that a healthy lifestyle has on

undergraduate student’s stress levels, happiness, and academic achievement. 43 undergraduates

at a small, Catholic liberal arts university were given electronic surveys. Surveys consisted of

questions regarding demographics, healthy lifestyle techniques, perceived stress, happiness, and

academic achievement. The Perceived Stress Scale and the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire

were used to measure stress and happiness. Results showed that there was a significant

relationship between three of these measures. Analysis, indicated that how often participants

followed nutritional guidelines and their GPA were significantly related r(38) = .345, p = .03. In

addition to this, the relationship between hours of sleep and happiness were significantly related

r(39) = .324, p = .04 as well as sleep and stress r(37) = .372, p =.02. More research on the topic

needs to be done on the topic, but we can conclude that some aspects of healthy lifestyle can

predict academic achievement and emotional regulation. Nutrition was found to predict academic

achievement while sleep was able to be linked to stress and happiness.

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Relationship Between a Healthy Lifestyle and Academic Achievement

Introduction

College students in the United States are notorious for lacking in healthy lifestyles and

lacking within the mental health department. Many people are familiar with the phrase

“freshmen 15,” meaning that first-year students are likely to gain 15 pounds. Whether that be

because they cannot cope with the stress of schoolwork, the fact that they are away from home,

or they were never taught how to take care of themselves. Students often enter college without

the proper techniques to maintain good mental and physical health. In college, no one is pushing

you to maintain a healthy lifestyle. When you live on your own, there is no one telling you to eat

your vegetables, drink your water, go workout, or go to bed. All these things; sleep, exercise,

water, and nutrition are all factors into a student’s happiness or stress levels and thus contribute

to their academic achievement.

The most important part of a person’s day is how much sleep they were able to receive

for the day. Sleep has been described as more important than food because it provides the

foundation for our memory that day (Schwartz, 2011). Having the proper amount of sleep to start

your day is vital for several different important functions such as learning, making decisions,

emotional regulation, and physical health. How much sleep a person needs can vary by

individual, but adults 18 and older should typically aim to fall within the seven-to-eight-hour

range (Sleep deprivation and deficiency, 2021). Sleep is our most important aspect of our lives

that we control, yet we seem to neglect it more often than any other aspect of healthy lifestyle.

The same can be said for college students, as sleep is one of the first things to go when they need

extra time.
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In a study done with undergraduate college students, researchers explored this connection

between the importance of sleep and its relation to academic achievement. Students self-reported

through a survey regarding their sleep patterns, their academic achievement, and their lifestyle

patterns. Not only did they report on how much sleep they were able to achieve each night but

also their sleep patterns. Participants explained things like the quality of their sleep they were

achieving as well as whether they were more morning or evening people. With many factors

being explored into academic achievement, the study found five significant connections between

a student’s sleep and grades. Significant predictors included previous academic achievement,

class attendance, sufficient sleep, night outings, and sleep quality. This survey goes to show that

not only is the amount of sleep important for someone to achieve in school, but also the quality

of that sleep (Gomes et al., 2011).

While sleep could quite possibly be the most important factor into a persons emotional

and academic achievement, there are still many other factors. Another factor into a healthy

lifestyle would be nutritional intake. Whether a person is following a diet like Keto or vegan

guidelines, most people have some way of interpreting how healthy their diet may be. There are

many ways that a person can find out whether what they are eating is of nutritional value, but the

best would probably be through the USDA’s guidelines. The USDA releases information for age

groups, people who are pregnant, male and females, and for people trying to be healthier

(Dietary guidelines for Americans, 2020). College students have access to this information and

can explore whether they are following these guidelines.

In a 2014 study, researchers looked at the importance of nutrition in college students lives

and whether this had anything to do with their academic achievement. With academics, the

researchers also explored the importance of nutrition with physical activity and sleep. The
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research done through this group found that there is a significant relation between healthy

lifestyle and achievement. With a focus on nutrition, this study showed that there is a

relationship between nutrition and whether a student does well in school. They also showed that

with this information, if a student follows nutritional guidelines, they are more likely to have

better academic achievement (Wald et al., 2014).

As research showed within this study looking at nutrition, exercise is also a significant

aspect of academic achievement and emotional wellbeing. Many studies have proven that

exercising can help to reduce stress, not just in college students but in everyone. In a study done

specifically looking at college students, researchers explored the idea of physical activity having

an impact on stress and academic achievement. This study found that there is a significant

relationship between physical activity and stress reduction. With stress reduction, there was a

reduction on the impact of stress on academic performance. The more exercise that a student can

perform, the less stress that they will have and the better they will do in academics (Meyer &

Lawson, 2018).

The last factor of a person’s healthy lifestyle would include how much water they are

able to drink in a day. Drinking water and staying hydrated is one of the more important things

that a person can control. Water intake and stress have been connected for years with many

studies showing that the more water someone drinks the less stressed they may be. This

relationship between water and stress comes from the fact that when you’re dehydrated, your

body cannot function as well as when you are well hydrated. Stress can also be a cause of

dehydration and can cause many of the same symptoms. The more water that a person drinks, the

less likely they will be to experience the stress of being dehydrated and the healthier their
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lifestyle will be. Men are encouraged to drink about 15 and a half cups a day while women

should be having about 11 and a half cups (Shaw, 2009).

During this study, we hope to accomplish several things. We hope to be able to link

academic achievement with healthy lifestyle as well as with perceived stress and happiness.

Through this, we came up with three hypotheses to look at during research that include the

following: The first hypothesis is that there is a positive relationship between an undergraduate

student’s lifestyle through sleep, exercise, and nutrients, and their report of academic

achievement. The second hypothesis is that there is a positive relationship between an

undergraduate student’s lifestyle with sleep, exercise, and nutrient intake and their report of

happiness. The last hypothesis is that there is a positive relationship between undergraduate

student’s proper sleep, nutrients, and exercise and their perceived stress.

Method

Participants

Participants were 43 undergraduate students at a small, Catholic liberal arts university. Of

the participants, four (9.3%) were male, 38 (88.4%) were female and one (2.3%) identified as

non-binary/third gender. Ages of participants ranged from 18 to 29 with the mean age being 21.

The race breakdown of participants was 42 (97.7%) white participants, one (2.3%) Native

American, and two (4.7%) African American participants. Of the African American participants,

one also identified as white and the other identified as Native American. Among the participants,

eight (18.6%) studied Business, 12 (27.9%) were in Education and Applied Social Sciences, four

(9.3%) study the Humanities, 13 (30.2%) study Natural and Health Sciences, three (7%) in

Visual and Performing Arts, and six (14%) chose other. The participants student classification

consisted of eight (18.6%) first-year students, five (11.6%) sophomores, five (11.6%) juniors,
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and 25 (58.1%) seniors. Of these participants, 27 (62.8%) were student athletes and 16 (37.2%)

were not. Of the 42 participants, 36 (83.7%) have not utilized campus counseling, six (14%)

have utilized campus counseling, and one (2.3%) chose to prefer not to say.

Measures

Stress.

To measure perceived stress, we used the 10-item scale developed by Cohen and

colleagues called the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) (1983). The PSS is a ten-item Likert scale that

assesses how often the participant felt or thought a certain way. Participants read and respond to

these 10 questions on a scale of 1 (never) to 5 (very often). For analysis, the six negatively

worded items will be reverse scored, and then the responses to the ten items will be summed into

a total stress score (α = .821).

Happiness.

Happiness was measured by using the shortened version of the Oxford happiness

questionnaire (OHQ) (Hills & Argyle, 2001). The OHQ short scale is an eight-item Likert scale

that assesses the participants happiness. Participants read and respond to these eight questions on

a scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree). For analysis, the three negatively worded

items will be reverse scored, and then the responses to the eight items summed to measure

overall happiness (α = .807). The higher the scores indicate greater happiness.

Healthy Lifestyle.

Healthy lifestyle was measured by recording the number of hours of sleep the participant

achieves, water intake, nutrient intake, and amount of exercise. Participants were asked to give

the number of hours of sleep that they achieved each night, in hours, within a 7-day period. This

was an open-ended question which was then added together and averaged. Participants were also
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asked to indicate the number of 8 oz glasses of water they have had within the last 24 hours. This

was also an open-ended question. Participant’s received information from the Dietary Guidelines

for Americans (2021) on what the nutritional guidelines for adults per week is. They were then

asked to indicate to what extent they follow these guidelines daily on a Likert scale of 1 (not at

all) to 7 (always). Finally, participants were asked to indicate the amount of exercise in hours

that they perform per week in an open-ended box.

Academic Achievement.

Academic achievement was measured by recording the participants GPA on a 4.0 scale.

Participants were asked to enter their current college GPA, or in the case of freshmen, their most

recent GPA, in an open-ended box.

Procedure

To complete this study, researchers will use snowball sampling with undergraduate

college students at a small, Catholic liberal arts university. The study will be a correlational

design with multiple regression through a survey. The survey will ask participants open-ended

and multiple-choice questions regarding demographics, perceived stress, happiness, and

academic achievement.

Results

To test hypothesis one, that there is a positive relationship between a healthy lifestyle and

academic achievement, Pearson correlation coefficients were computed through SPSS software.

Components of healthy lifestyle consisted of exercise, sleep, water intake, and following nutrient

guidelines and academic achievement consisted of current GPA. Analysis, indicated that how

often participants followed nutritional guidelines and their GPA were significantly related r(38)

= .345, p = .03. The results indicate that when nutritional guidelines are followed, GPA is higher.
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None of the other lifestyle were significantly related to academic achievement (all p’s are > .05).

(See Figure 1).

Figure 1. Scatterplot of relationship between GPA and nutrition.

To test the second hypothesis that there is a relationship between healthy lifestyle and

their report of happiness. Again, components of healthy lifestyle consisted of exercise, sleep,

water intake, and following nutrient guidelines and happiness comes from the Oxford Happiness

Questionnaire. Analysis indicated that the relationship between hours of sleep and happiness

were significantly related r(39) = .324, p = .04. The results indicate that the more sleep

participants had, the happier that they were (See Figure 2). No other elements of healthy lifestyle

were significantly related to happiness (all p’s are > .05).

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Figure 2. Scatterplot of relationship between happiness and amount of sleep.

The third hypothesis was that there would be a negative relationship between healthy

lifestyle and their perceived stress. Contrary to the hypothesis, the relationship between sleep and

perceived stress was significantly negative. Analysis indicated that the relationship between

hours of sleep and stress were positively significantly related r(37) = .372, p =.02. This result

shows that as sleep increases, so does increased stress, which was the opposite of what was

predicted (See Figure 3). No other results showed that healthy lifestyle was significantly related

to perceived stress (all p’s are > .05).

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Figure 3. Scatterplot of relationship between perceived stress and amount of sleep.

Discussion

Everyone has a different experience while they are in college. No one person will have

the exact same college experience, whether they follow the same lifestyle choices or not. In the

present study, we looked at whether college students follow healthy lifestyle choices and how

these choices relate to academic achievement and emotional regulation. No one person of these

participants lived the same experiences and did not have the same exact answers. There were

many participants who did well in some areas of lifestyle but lacked in others. There were

participants who lacked in healthy lifestyle but still did well in academics or stress levels. Results

varied from person to person.

With these results, we were able to find significant relationships within the study and

hypotheses. GPA was found to be significantly related to nutrition, meaning that the better

someone followed nutritional guidelines, the better they achieved academically. Nutrition is an
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important part of lifestyle and that was reflected in this study. Sleep was also significantly related

to stress and happiness. Sleep was positively related to happiness but negatively related to stress,

meaning that the more sleep someone has the more stressed they will be. These results are

interesting because we believed that results would be the opposite with more sleep leading to less

stress. This could be because the more sleep you are able to achieve, the less time that you have

for other things like exercise or studying for tests.

Limitations and Future Discussions

There are several limitations to this study. The first limitation would be that there was a

smaller number of participants. The more participants in a study, the more significant the results

can be. The second limitation to this study was that it is a web-based study, so not all people can

have access to this survey. Although most college students have laptops or a cellular device,

there could still be a population without one of these devices. The third limitation could be

within the question about sleep and stress. There was a negative relationship, which could be

because of something else or because of a type one error. More research must be done in this

area to show the relationship between healthy lifestyle, stress, happiness, and academic success.

Conclusion

This study looked to show the relationship between a healthy lifestyle and academic

achievement in college students. We looked to link stress and happiness with a student’s

academic achievement and how healthy of a lifestyle they live. Although we were able to find

significant relationships between nutrition, sleep, academic achievement, stress, and happiness,

more research must be done on the topic to better understand it. There is relevant information

within this study, but there should be more research such as a longitudinal study to look at
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students throughout their college years. The results of this study go to show that if you are able

to live a healthier lifestyle, you may be able to do better in school and live happier.
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