Healthy mind and body, healthy GPA

a young man
Discover the connection between your physical and mental health and your academic success.

Can maximizing your health improve your GPA? Researchers at three major universities think so. They've established a "significant" link between mental health and academic outcomes. [1]

Research supports student perceptions

In a recent study researchers found that students with depression (particularly those that also have an anxiety disorder) are more likely to have a lower GPA or even drop out of university. Students with an eating disorder are also likely to have a lower GPA.

Reinforcing this finding are the perceptions of students themselves. According to a recent survey by UBC health and counselling professionals, students identified several mental and physical health issues as negatively affecting their academic work. [2] Their top concerns were:

  • stress
  • depression
  • anxiety
  • colds and sore throats
  • sleep difficulties
  • relationship issues
  • non-academic use of the internet and computer games

While students generally felt capable of helping themselves, they didn’t always know how or where to get help.

Find what you need, on the Live Well, Learn Well website

The Live Well, Learn Well website brings together information, support, and resources that are available to you as student at UBC. The aim of the site is to help you:

  1. Learn how physical and mental well-being affects your life as a student
  2. Develop new skills to enhance your well-being.

On the site, you can:

We hope that you will take advantage of the Live Well, Learn Well website to keep your mind and body – and your GPA – healthy.

Please let us know what you think – your feedback will inform the future development of the Live Well, Learn Well website.

[1] "Mental Health and Academic Success in College," (Eisenberg, Golberstein and Hunt, The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, Volume 9, Issue 1, 2009).

[2] National College Health Assessment Data Survey, UBC, 2009.

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Tagged academic-intellectual , emotional , physical

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