title: How health behaviors relate to academic performance via affect: an intensive longitudinal study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This intensive longitudinal study examined how sleep and physical activity relate to university students' affect and academic performance during a stressful examination period.
  
  
  METHODS
  On 32 consecutive days, 72 first-year students answered online questionnaires on their sleep quality, physical activity, positive and negative affect, learning goal achievement, and examination grades. First-year university students are particularly well-suited to test our hypotheses: They represent a relatively homogeneous population in a natural, but controlled setting, and simultaneously deal with similar stressors, such as examinations. Data were analyzed using multilevel structural equation models.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Over the examination period, better average sleep quality but not physical activity predicted better learning goal achievement. Better learning goal achievement was associated with increased probability of passing all examinations. Relations of average sleep quality and average physical activity with learning goal achievement were mediated by experienced positive affect. In terms of day-to-day dynamics, on days with better sleep quality, participants reported better learning goal achievement. Day-to-day physical activity was not related to daily learning goal achievement. Daily positive and negative affect both mediated the effect of day-to-day sleep quality and physical activity on daily learning goal achievement.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Health behaviors such as sleep quality and physical activity seem important for both academic performance and affect experience, an indicator of mental health, during a stressful examination period. These results are a first step toward a better understanding of between- and within-person variations in health behaviors, affect, and academic performance, and could inform prevention and intervention programs for university students.
authors.affiliation: University of Basel, Department of Psychology, Division of Clinical Psychology and Epidemiology, Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Lavinia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Flueckiger
authors.affiliation: University of Basel, Department of Psychology, Division of Clinical Psychology and Epidemiology, Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Roselind
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lieb
authors.affiliation: University of Basel, Department of Psychology, Division of Clinical Psychology and Epidemiology, Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Andrea H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Meyer
authors.affiliation: University of Basel, Department of Psychology, Division of Clinical Psychology and Epidemiology, Basel, Switzerland; Center for Adaptive Rationality (ARC), Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Jutta
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mata
mesh_terms: D000339:Affect / Q000502:physiology*; D004521:Educational Measurement; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity; D057566:Self Report; D012890:Sleep; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D014495:Universities; D055815:Young Adult