RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN ACADEMIC SUCCESS AND HEALTH AND ILLNESS IN COLLEGE STUDENTS

This study investigated relationships between academic success and aspects of health and illness in college students. College juniors and seniors completed a survey addressing ratings of health, measures of sleep, mental health, screen time, the frequency of illness-related absences and access of healthcare. Measures of academic performance (GPA and academic status) were gathered from university records. Significant relationships to academic performance were found for overall health, sleep, mental health, time accessing social media, and frequency of accessing healthcare and school due to illness. Collectively, health measures predicted 10% of the variance in GPA. Keywords: academic success, mental health, sleep, illness, social media
INTRODUCTION Student retention has become an increasingly important issue for colleges and universities (Allen, Robbins, Casillas, & Oh, 2008; Weuffen, Fotinatos, & Andrews, 2018). On average, as many as one-third [...]