Happiness and other factors behind examination performance of college students

Abstract

Studies on happiness had flourished around the world. Different impacts of happiness in different aspects of life had been well documented. In the Philippines however, the study of happiness remained scarce especially in academic setting. In addition, most previous studies focused mainly on GPA as a measure of academic performance. Because happiness is vulnerable to life experiences (Veenhoven, 1997), linking happiness with GPA may not yield a comprehensive and more meaningful result. To fill this gap in the previous inquiries, this study aimed at the less taken angle. Thus, this inquiry focused on the link between happiness and examination outcome of college students. The study was conducted at the Central Luzon State University, Philippines. There were 282 college students participated in the study. Using correlation and test of difference analyses, several findings were noted. Results suggest that happiness had no significant relationship with students' examination performance. Instead, examination performance was associated with the examination's level of difficulty. Happiness on the other hand was correlated with age and gender. Younger students were happier than older ones and female students were happier than their male counterparts. Female students were also found to have longer time spent reviewing the lesson than male students but this difference did not indicate any significant variation in examination score between genders.

Evaluation of Impact of Happiness on Academic Performance among Medical Students of Rawalpindi Medical University, Pakistan

“…Different studies that were conducted in various countries including Pakistan, Iran, support our study finding that happiness and academic performance have strong and positive association and agree with our study finding that increase in happiness leads to better academic performance among students [8], [9]. While a study that conducted in Philippines reported conflicting finding, that happiness has no impact on academic performance of students [3]. In the presence of findings in literature regarding the association of happiness and academic performance, that agrees with our study results, we support the idea that by increasing happiness we may be able to bring enhancement in the academic performance of students.…”

“…In either way, it has direct influential effects on everyday life situations [7]. As mentioned above that happiness is considered as either a state of positive emotions or state of satisfaction, this may be the reason that happier people are better able to confront various life situations as compared to unhappy ones and subsequently give better performance in daily life activities [3], [4]. Academic performance depicts intellectual growth and development of a student, bringing to light the ambition of entire educational structure [8].…”

How grit, college adjustment, and happiness predict freshmen students’ academic performance?

“…The finding further suggests that low and high academic outcome does not imply considerable variability in students' happiness. The previous investigation (Lumontod, 2018) found the same result. The latter study suggests that happiness was not associated with students' examination performance.…”

“…In some studies, happiness was inconsistently related to students' academic performance (Bücker et al, 2018). The previous study also found similar results suggesting that happiness did not predict college students' examination performance (Lumontod, 2018). The inconsistency of the findings may suggest two things.…”

Learning with Happiness and Academic Achievement of University Students in Thailand

“…Human behavior and productivity are influenced by happiness. Therefore, later research has investigated the predictive ability of happiness on multiple dimensions of human activity, including academic performance (Lumontod, 2018). Students in Latin America have a decline in academic performance largely due to the obligation to help their parents earn a living.…”