Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Kerry Shanaberger
Introduction
Nutritious food availability on college campuses is a growing issue among students for a
multitude of reasons. Often times college campuses do not offer nutritious food options to their
students, leaving them either hungry or eating empty foods that do not essentially benefit their
well-being. Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines nutrition as obtaining the food necessary for
health and growth (Nutrition, 2017). Since students do not get to choose what college
campuses provide them with, they are left to choose the options given to them. Often times,
students or their parents will bring some of their own food into their dorms, but once it runs out it
may not be easily accessible and can cost a lot of money. With campuses charging so much
The problem at hand goes far beyond the money aspect of college meal plans, because
nutrition is becoming an issue for students academic success. Academic success is defined as
desired knowledge, skills and competencies, persistence and attainment of educational outcomes
and performance (York, Gibson, & Rankin, 2015). Nutrition means that what people put in
their body will benefit their health and will help them grow. If students are not getting enough
nutrients from the food they eat, then their bodies as well as their brains will not be working as
efficiently or as accurately as it should be. Students may not be able to focus because of the lack
of food available to them or because the foods they eat do not fuel their body properly, leading
them to a near impossible task to maintain good grades and achieving academic success. If
students are expected to keep up their grades, study, and excel in school then they need to be
provided with healthy and nutritious meals to help ensure this. The following research will
examine the connection between nutritious food options available to college students and its
effects on students academic success. The research will focus on students specifically at the
University of Rhode Island (URI) and can be generalized to college campuses, as a whole, across
the United States. More specifically we are looking to answer the question, does nutrition at
Literature Review
A study from Oregon State University examines how food insecurity; defined as the
ability to feed oneself at all or nutritiously, affects academic achievement and psychological
health in grades K-12 and college students (Cady, 2014). The term food insecure ranges from
high food security to low food security; high being access to nutritious food and low food
security being no access to nutritious food or food at all. The article discusses surveys conducted
all over college campuses throughout the United States. It states their level of food insecurity and
how it may impact their education, health and psychological behaviors. Of all the surveys a total
of 14% of all students admitted to having some sort of food insecurity and up to 59% of students
at individual universities being very food insecure/not having access to food at all (Cady, 2014).
One issue with this study is that although the study shows a large number of food insecure
students, the study does not give students a definition or consensus of what food insecure
The study makes the connection between food insecurity and academic achievement.
Although there are no studies on college students and academic achievement among the food
insecure, there are studies on K-12 students and the effects of food insecurity. Overall, these
studies show a correlation between food insecurity and math grades, as well as memory retention
and reading scores. The students that described themselves as very low in food security have
much lower math, memory retention and reading scores than their peers that identified high on
the food secure scale. Since there is no study specifically on college students and the effects of
food insecurity, this study makes a pipeline assumption that the habits in food insecurity and
poor academic achievement will carry on into college as it did throughout high school for these
students affected.
Performance by Wilder Research (Stuber, 2014), outlines the effects nutrition has on students
academic achievement. Studies have found multiple correlations with nutrition and academic
achievement, including obesity, food insecurity, and limited food access as areas of concern.
Many students admit that they are not able to get the proper nutrition due to a lack of money.
This lack of nutritious food directly impacts ones ability to reach their full potential in the
classroom.
Research has also shown that nutrition affects students thinking skills, behavior, and
health, which are all factors that impact academic performance (Stuber, 2014). Additionally, the
article describes how diets containing high amounts of trans and saturated fat have a negative
impact on learning and memory. This can also cause adverse effects on ones cognitive
development. When a student does not receive adequate nutrition, they are more susceptible to
illness, stomach issues and headaches. However, when a student does have access to adequate
nutrition their cognition, energy levels, and memory may increase. Access to nutrition that
incorporates protein, carbohydrates, and glucose has been shown to improve students cognition,
concentration, and energy levels as well. The article also details a link between nutrition and
students behavior. This is especially true amongst elementary aged students when their brains
are still not fully developed. Studies have found that nutrition, especially breakfast, enhances
ones psychological well being and also can reduce aggression in students (Stuber, 2014). The
amount of suspensions students receive and discipline problems can also decrease.
In addition to elementary students, there have also been studies on college-aged students.
A study was conducted by the Department of Nutrition, Faculty of Medicine at the University of
Montreal (Marquis, 2005). The study was conducted with 319 students living in residence halls
with the goal of understanding convenience as it plays a role in food motivation. The researchers
conducted this study by collecting the data from a self-administered questionnaire, asking what
their motivations for choosing the foods they eat and where they eat on campus. The main
objective was to understand how convenience orientates young adults decisions. Out of all the
factors that may dictate a students decision on food choices, convenience was the most
important food motivation, followed by price, pleasure, health and concern about weight. In the
study, researchers found that there was a positive correlation between convenience and deciding
where to eat, having a varied diet, and lack of time (Marquis, 2005). The difficulties the students
associated with living in residence halls is what led students to choosing to eat what was
conveniently around, rather than trying to eat healthy and have a varied diet.This research study
provided useful data to consider when trying to answer our own hypothesis of how does campus
nutrition affect the academic performance of URI students. The data from this study showed that
students are most likely to choose foods that are unhealthy due to the food being easily available
for the students. If there proves to be a correlation between nutrition and academic performance
of URI students it would be important to consider how the food URI offers on campus affects
students diets.
University, Chico (Stilliman, Rodas-Fortier, & Neyman, 2004). The purpose of the study was to
assess the diet and exercise habits along with the perceived barriers to following a healthy
lifestyle in college students. A total of 471 college students enrolled in the study during the
spring semester of 2002. The participants were recruited using a stratified random sample of
upper and lower level classes, with the final class selection being dependent on obtaining
permission from the obstructor to enter the class. The study was conducted by administering a
survey designed to assess the dietary and exercise habits and perceived barriers to following a
Results from the study showed that breakfast was the most commonly missed meal. 63%
of students snacked one to two times a day, 58% of participants ate vegetables and 64% ate
whole or canned fruit less than once a day. Men consumed more soda, alcohol, higher dairy fats,
ate more meat, and consumed less vegetables than women. More than half of the subjects rated
their diet as poor or fair. Lack of time was listed as the most common barrier to eating well.
Men exercised more than women, with women listing lack of time as the most common barrier
Another barrier that contributes to a healthy student diet is food insecurity. Professors Dr.
Jennifer J. Maguire and Dr. Marissa ONeill from Humboldt State University conducted a study
in 2017 to describe the relationship between food insecurity and academic performance (O'neill,
2017). The researchers used a survey research design that was used to sample 65 college students
attending a rural, mid sized, public university in Northern California who were seeking
emergency food resources at a campus food pantry. When food security was measured using a
composite food security score, food security and GPA were negatively correlated. The
researchers found that there was no statistically significant relationship between the two
variables. However in the short-answer and open-ended questions, students also reported having
trouble concentrating in class and while studying at home when they did not have access to
enough food. Results indicated that increasing food availability for college students may improve
student ability to perform academically. This study is important to our research question because
we need to consider the possibility that students do not eat healthy because they may be food
students, the results showed a positive association between ones diet and and how well they did
in school (Burrow 2017). The study surveyed students and found that students who reported
consuming regular meals including breakfast as well as reported higher consumption of fruit in
their diet, did generally better in school than the students who did not report this. Furthermore,
the study investigated the effects of just breakfast on academic achievement and found that
habitual consumption and nutritional quality of breakfast alone were greatly associated with
academic achievement. The study then conducted a survey on students who only ate two meals a
day and found that eating at least two regular meals a day was associated with higher GPAs.
Since increased eating of regular meals affects greater academic achievement, the article
suggested that consuming regular meals may be related to a greater diet quality and better
nutrition levels, concluding that increased nutrition positively correlates with academic
achievement (Burrow 2017). The study did not look at the options available to students on
college campuses and the effects that this has on meal frequency or meal nutrition levels or the
A similar study conducted by Jianghong Liu, analyzed the effects eating breakfast had on
preschoolers IQ. 1,656 preschool children who were all part of a city in China, Jintan, were
participants in this study. To conduct this study, the parents of the children were asked to
complete a survey which asked how often their children eat breakfast in a typical week. The
options listed on the survey were 1=Always (67 days a week), 2=Often (45 days a week),
3=Sometimes (23 days a week), and 4= Rarely (01 days a week). To determine the IQ of the
children, an intelligence test was given using norms of the Wechsler Preschool and Primary
Scale of Intelligence when the children were six years old. Descriptive analysis was conducted of
the results, and it showed that almost 80% of the children had breakfast 4-5 times per week,
14.5% reported to eat breakfast at least 6 days per week and only 5.7% said that had breakfast
less than 4 times per week. As for the IQ test, results indicated that children who did not eat
breakfast regularly had a lower overall performance IQ. Specifically, children who do not often
eat breakfast had a 7.9 points lower on their verbal IQ score and 6.1 points lower on their
performance IQ score than those children who eat breakfast on a regular basis. When examining
all categories of the IQ assessment, children who regularly ate breakfast scored on average 4.6
points higher than children who did not regularly eat breakfast.
Lastly, a researcher from St. John Fisher College named, Lindsey M. Dodsworth,
recently conducted a study titled: Student Nutrition and Academic Achievement. Dodsworth
was studying eighth grade students from a high school in an urban neighborhood. She aimed to
determine whether nutrition affected students learning and behaviors (Dodsworth 2010).
Dodsworths research prior to her study showed chronic hunger, deficiency in iron, a consistent
lack of eating breakfast, and overall nutrition problems can be significant to academic
performance (Dodsworth 2010). When a person has iron deficiency, they have a shortened
attention span and damaged cognitive function. Studies have also shown the consumption of low
nutrient foods increased absences, tardiness, anxiety, and low test scores. Schools that have a
high percentage of students who eat breakfast have shown to score higher on scholastic tests. The
students who eat breakfast also did better in arithmetic, attention and memory tests, and had
better general cognitive function (Dodsworth 2010). In Dodsworths study, data was collected
over fourteen days and the subjects were students in an eighth grade science class. These
students had different education levels and backgrounds. Each day the students were given a
Likert style questionnaire about their nutritional choices. The instructor of the class also
evaluated each students daily academic achievement per the researchers instructions. There
were twenty-seven students total that participated in the study. The result of this study showed a
thirty two percent correlation between nutrition and academic performance (Dodsworth 2010).
The results of this study, like our study, showed a positive correlation between nutrition and
academic achievement.
All of the previous research that has been conducted has outlined that nutrition affects
many different aspects of academic success. Research leads us to believe that there is not enough
nutritional options readily available to college students, and therefore their ability to succeed in
the classroom is being compromised. Being college students ourselves, after closely analyzing
research on the correlation between nutrition and academic success, we now understand the
In past research, there were many issues regarding how studies were conducted. For
example, in the article titled, Food Insecurity As A Student Issue by Clare L. Cady, there was
no definition given for the term food insecure when conducting surveys. This leaves room for
interpretation depending on each student's view of the term. In other studies, sample size of the
population as well as the diversity of students could have affected the outcome. One study was
limited to students solely living in resident halls, and another only conducted research on
students in specific classes. Another study with a few problems was the Dodsworth study. First,
her sample of students did not have a balanced demographic. Of the students that participated in
her study, 81 percent were African American, 11 percent were Latino, 7 percent were Caucasian,
0.6 percent were Asian, and 0.4 percent were Native American. Because the demographic was so
unbalanced, this studys results most likely would not have been able to be generalized for a
larger population. If these studies had larger, more diverse sample sizes, the results may have
been more accurate and representative of the population as a whole. By seeing flaws in others
research on this subject, our group was able to improve our technique, in order to avoid making
Our question of whether or not nutritional food options affects students academic success
has been answered through our research to an extent. It is shown that in grades K-12, there is a
direct correlation between nutrition and academic success and that on college campuses students
admit to eating poorly due to lack of time. Additionally, in Jianghong Lius study on breakfast
results proved that eating breakfast in the morning has a significant effect on ones cognitive
ability. Although, these analyses were conducted on K-12 students, researchers are expected to
find very similar results when testing college students as well as adults, reinforcing the idea that
eating healthy and balanced meals is essential for reaching ones maximum cognitive potential.
We can come to the conclusion that eating healthy has a positive correlation with academic
performance on college campuses because of these studies. The questions left unanswered are
whether or not students are able to reach full nutritional value while living on college campuses
and if there is enough access to nutritional foods. In addition, we want to conclude that these
nutritional options impact academic success. Our research aims to determine whether or not there
is a direct relationship with nutrition offered at URI and college students academic performance,
Methods
In order to examine our research question, does nutrition at URI dining halls affect
college students academic success? we created a survey which utilizes the Likert Scale and
also conducted interviews. The goal of the survey is to find if there is a correlation between
nutrition and the academic success of students. The survey includes easy to understand
statements which a participant may either strongly disagree with, disagree with, neither disagree
nor agree, agree with, or strongly agree with. This survey asks many specific questions in order
to determine whether or not students believe that their nutrition correlates to their learning, and
whether or not they believe theyre provided with sufficiently healthy foods in the URI dining
hall.
In addition to the survey, we also conducted interviews with eight college aged
participants. We asked each of the participants five questions in order to get their opinions on
nutrition and education. The five questions we asked participants were: How do you feel when
you eat unhealthy and go to class?, Do you perform better on exams when you eat a healthy
breakfast?, Do you think URI offers nutritional food options?, In general do you eat a
nutritious and balanced diet?, In general do you get good grades? These interview questions
will help us answer the remaining questions we had about previous research on this topics. Once
we interview our participants and have them take the survey we will analyze the results in order
When conducting research it is extremely important to choose the right sampling methods
as well as the right participants. In our research it is important that we use a sampling method
that will allow for a group to be picked which represents the entire university as well as reduces
the chances for sampling errors. With this in mind, we decided to pick our sample group for both
the surveys and the interview using simple random sampling. According to the textbook,
sampling each element in the population or universe is afforded an equal opportunity of being
selected to the sample (p.56). This technique allows us to avoid having any sampling errors and
allows each student an equal probability of being selected for the survey and interview. The
simple random sampling technique we will be using is random numbers, obtained through the
use of a computer generator. We believe this will give us a group of participants who are
unbiased. In order to select students to participate in our survey as well as our interview, we
chose from a list of students at URI who currently have a meal plan. All of these students will be
between the ages of 17-22 because we are only selecting from undergraduate students at the
university. We are not selecting students based on race or ethnicity because we want a diverse
range of participants in order to help us examine our research question. For this survey, we will
have a sample size of twenty and for the interview, our sample size will be eight. We chose to set
our sample size this way because it is small enough to be manageable when conducting our
surveys and interviews but large enough to be accurate when analyzing our results. From our
sample size of twenty students, we will be surveying ten females, as well as ten males. For our
interview we also divided our sample size of eight into four boys and four girls.We chose to
divide our population by gender in order to reduce any biases in our research. Males and females
have different body types and so the way in which they gain nutrition from food can have a
different impact on their brain as well as their ability to learn. By researching an equal number of
males and females, we will be able to reduce this bias by gender, and have a better understanding
of nutrition's impact on students in general. In order to use the computer generator method, we
would first get the names of every undergraduate student at the University of Rhode Island with
a meal plan. We will eliminate any student who is under the age of seventeen or over the age of
twenty two. Of those remaining, we will split them into a group of males and a group of females.
Then we will assign students of each group consecutive numbers and put all of those numbers
into the computer generator to obtain a random list of twenty-eight participants, fourteen males
and fourteen females. By following this procedure, we are able to minimize sampling errors.
you must have a system for measuring variables. For our research the variables are the students
nutrition and their academic success. For our survey we chose to use the Likert Summated Rated
Scale in order to measure these variables. According to Thomas D. Stewart (2002), The Likert
Scale consists of a series of positively and negatively worded declarative statements, each
accompanied by a five- or seven point scale assessing subject agreement or disagreement,
approval or disapproval (p. 44). By surveying a student's agreement or disagreement with our
survey statements, we can find if there is a correlation between nutrition and academic success.
In our survey we have a five point Likert Scale with the five points being strongly disagree (1),
disagree (2), neither agree nor disagree (3), agree (4), and strongly agree (5). The statements we
chose are worded so that at the end of the survey, we may find the summation of the participants
choices to assign a score that is meaningful to our research. For example, one of our declarative
this item would imply that the participant finds nutrition does affect their school work a lot.
However, a score of one would imply they dont find that there is a correlation between their
nutrition and school work. We ensured that all of our questions follow this same scoring system
so that our final summation can be interpreted based on whether it is high or low. It is possible to
assign meaning to the sum of scores in our survey because the items are unidimensional.
The last concern with our measurements is reliability and validity. We have taken some
precautions to our research in both our surveys and interviews to ensure we yield reliable and
valid results. To maintain reliability, we will use the test-retest approach. As outlined by Thomas
administered two or more times to the same group of respondents (p. 49). Giving the same test
twice to a participant allows for us to compare the results. We allow for some time to pass before
giving the second survey in order to reduce sensitization. Furthermore, in order to test validity of
our results we would use the panel approach. In this case we would assemble a panel of people
with expertise in nutrition as well as its impact on the brain. We would present our survey to
them and have them assess it on how well it measures the correlation between nutrition and
academic success. By following these procedures, it would ensure that our research is both vaild
and reliable.
Results
After distributing our survey to twenty participants we analyzed our results using
frequency analysis through SPSS. For every question we found the mean and standard deviation.
The results for the mean are as follows: Question 1=3.4, Question 2=2.1, Question 3=4.05,
Question 4=3.9, Question 5=3.4, Question 6=4.1, Question 7=3.4, Question 8=4.5, Question
9=4.05 and Question 10=3.51. The results of the means showed us a relationship between our
two variables (nutrition and academic success). For example, the mean for the question 3 (Its
important to me that I eat nutritious food) was 4.05. We got the same mean for question 9 (I
generally perform well on exams). Additionally, the mean for question 1 (I eat healthy on a
daily basis) was 3.45, this mean was very similar to the mean for question 7 (I am able to focus
in class) which was 3.4. The similarity in our means showed a direct relationship between
eating nutritiously and academic success.The standard deviation reported for every question was
S.D.=.825, question 9 S.D.=.825 and lastly question 10 S.D.=.257. Of all our standard deviations
reported for each question, only one stood out to us. Question 5 on regularly eating three
nutritious meals a day had a standard deviation of 1.27 because we had responses of 1 as well as
5. This shows that while participants generally ate nutritious foods and got good grades, some of
the participants still did not eat three nutritious meals a day.
Next, we ran a correlation analysis of our data to test if there is significant relationship
between our two variables. We first ran a correlation test between question 1 (I eat healthy on a
daily basis) and question 10 (What is your GPA?) to see if there was a correlation between
one's diet and their GPA. The results reported (r = 0.530, p < 0.05). These results prove that there
is a strong and positive correlation between eating nutritious food and ones GPA. Since our
p-value (0.016) is less than the given significance level (0.05) the results of our test are
relationship between nutrition and academic success as a whole. To do this, we took the average
of all the questions regarding nutrition for each participant, as well as the average of all the
questions regarding academic success for each participant. Once we had those averages, we put
them into the SPSS program and ran the correlation test. The results reported, (r = 0.614, p <
0.05). These results proved that there is a strong and positive correlation between eating
nutritiously and ones academic success. Additionally, because our p-value (0.004) is less than
the given significance level (0.05) the results show that there is a significant correlation between
the two variables. These results answered our remaining questions about whether or not nutrition
affects ones academic success. With these results we can conclude that nutrition at URI dining
After conducting our interviews, we found that the answers given from participants were
all very similar for every question. There was no difference in answers due to gender. Our first
question asked, how do you feel when you eat unhealthy and then got to class? We found that
most of our participants generally felt tried, sluggish, and found it can be distracting when they
are hungry in class. One participant named John, however, contradicted this by saying I feel
good, because I usually dont eat at all before I go to class. John is an outlier, because since he
is used to not eating before class, any type of food feels better to him than not eating at all.
Our second question asked the participants, do you perform better on exams and in class
when you eat a good breakfast? All the participants stated they perform better when they eat
breakfast before an exam, reasoning that they are able to focus better and have more energy.
Shannon commented that she is more focused and has more energy. If not, I am tired and have
trouble concentrating on my exam. The answers to this question, leads us to believe that
students who dont eat breakfast, or eat a breakfast without adequate nutrition have a much
shorter attention span. If students are not focusing, then they will not be able to reach their full
potential academically.
The third question asked the participants, do you think URI offers nutritional food
options on campus? Our participants all agreed that URIs nutritional food options are
insufficient with most of the food being unhealthy and unappealing. The only nutritional food
option the participants mentioned that URI offers is the salad bar but they agreed that there
should be more options. One participant, Ben, stated that he often craves nutritional meals, but
cannot solely eat salads because it does not fill him up. Therefore, he is forced to fill up on the
less nutritional options offered in the dining hall. Another participant, Jake, even said that he
would prefer to go shopping than eat at the dining hall. These answers from students concerned
us, because we now know that nutrition does impact ones academic success, but the proper
nutritious diet? In our interview we defined healthy and nutritious as: a diet containing
substances necessary for growth, health, and good condition (vegetables, fruits, lean meats, etc).
All of our participants indicated they are conscious of the food they are eating and are concerned
about having a healthy diet. Each person mentioned they make an effort to make themselves
healthy and nutritious meals, indicating that the only times when they eat unhealthy is when they
eat out or are eating with friends. Many of the participants felt that when eating out with friends,
they were pressured to eat less nutritional options because it is what many of their friends were
eating. However, one participant, Allie, stated that she is somewhat required to eat healthy
because she is on the rowing team at URI. If she has a poor diet she will not perform well and
not be able to keep up with the rigorous workouts. This leads us to believe that the type of
activities and sports a person is involved in can also have a large impact on their diet.
For our final question we asked the participants in general, do you get good grades?
Overall, all of the participants felt they get good gradesmostly As and Bsoften making the
Deans List and studying hard. We were very surprised that all of our interview results were so
similar. All participants that were surveyed valued nutrition as well as their grades. Our
interview results supported our results obtained by the survey. Thus, these results strengthened
our conclusion that nutrition at URI affects college students academic success. Specifically, we
determined this through the overwhelming amount of answers, from our interviews that said, if a
participant does not eat healthy then they are not able to focus in class and as a result perform
poorly on assignments and exams. Additionally, the responses to the last two questions of the
interview support the direct relationship between eating healthy and high academic performance.
This is because all the participants who said they said healthy on a regular basis also reported
that they have A and B averages and have been on the Deans list several times.
Our findings from previous research, our results from our survey, as well as our interview
were all factors that led us to the conclusion that nutrition at URI directly impacts students
academic success.These results can most likely be generalized to college campuses all over the
United States. Our research demonstrates that if universites want their students t be successful
academically, than they need to start offering healthier options in the dining hall because
nutrition impacts student achievement much more than most people realize.
References:
BCPS Independent Research Seminar. (n.d.). Key Elements of the Research Proposal. Retrieved
https://www.bcps.org/offices/lis/researchcourse/key_elements.html#introduction
Burrows, Whatnall, M., Patterson, A., & Hutchesson, M. (2017). Associations between Dietary
Cady, C. L. (2014). Food Insecurity as a Student Issue. Journal of College & Character, 265-271.
Stuber, N. (2014). Nutrition and Students Academic Performance. Wilder Research, 1-9.
York, T.T., Gibson, C., & Rankin, S. (2015). Defining and Measuring Academic Success.
Liu, Jianghong. (2013, Jan. 7). Regular breakfast consumption is associated with increased IQ in
https://ac.els-cdn.com/S0378378213000145/1-s2.0-S0378378213000145-main.pdf?_tid=73d398
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Appendix A
Please complete the following survey to the best of your ability. Circle the number that
corresponds with your answer on the likert scale. 1 represents strongly disagree, 3 represents
NOTE: We are defining healthy and nutritious as: a diet containing substances necessary for growth, health,
and good condition (vegetables, fruits, lean meats, etc).
1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5
7. I am able to focus in class
1 2 3 4 5
8. I have been on the Deans List for the majority of my college career
1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5