The relationship between wellbeing and academic performance in Greek college students: Exploration of the perma-profiler

Abstract

Situated within a Positive Psychology perspective, this study examined the relationship between wellbeing and academic performance in Greek college students. Research evidence from studies in different countries point to a positive relationship between wellbeing and academic performance in secondary education students. There is paucity of research though as far as college students are concerned. College students face multiple transitions in their personal and academic lives and thus constitute a population worth studying. The study adopted an online survey research design to obtain data from the participants. Participants were students of a private college in Greece, were recruited via their campus email and were administered a brief measure of wellbeing, the PERMA-profiler. It was hypothesized that the findings would reveal a positive correlation between academic performance and 6 elements of the PERMA-profiler (Positive emotion, Engagement, Positive Relationships, Meaning, Accomplishment and Health and a negative correlation with Negative emotion and Loneliness, supporting existing literature. Results of a correlational analysis revealed a significant positive association between accomplishment and academic performance and a significant negative association between negative emotion and academic performance, as it was expected. There were, though, no significant findings for all the other PERMA factors. A multiple linear regression analysis showed the variation of accomplishment, negative emotion and overall happiness in predicting academic performance. Implications of significant and non-significant results are discussed in terms of understanding the possible factors that may influence the link between positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, accomplishment, negative emotion, health, loneliness and overall happiness with academic performance.