Page 28 - 2022 Abstract Book RUICHSS_2022_11_17 after conference

University of Ruhuna ISSN: 2706-0063
Matara, Sri Lanka

The Nexus between Happiness and Academic Performance of
Undergraduates (with Special Reference to the Faculty of
Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Ruhuna)

Gunasekara N.S.W., Jayasekara A.J.
Department of Economics, University of Ruhuna
anne@econ.ruh.ac.lk

Happiness is an especially important feature in each and every person. There may be
different factors which affect the happiness and at the same time happiness affects
other fields either positively or negatively, specially students. The main goal of
undergraduates is to have success in their academic life. Their short-term and long-
term academic plans are focused on achieving higher Grade Point Averages (GPAs).
If they fail in their academic life, they become most stressful people. Then it will
make someone addicted to drugs and other bad habits or perhaps attempt suicide as
well. Therefore, the main purpose of this was to investigate whether there is an impact
of happiness on the academic performance of the undergraduate students of the
faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka. The
Ordinal Regression and Spearman’s Correlation were used to achieve the main goal.
The study results concluded that there is an impact of happiness on the academic
performances of undergraduates. It is a positive impact and not a very strong
correlation. With regard to academic performance, the study indicated that the highest
number of students were from the third GPA category which represent a GPA
between 3.3 and 3.7 scores. The study found that there is an impact of happiness on
the academic performance of undergraduates. Then suggestions can be employed to
increase the happiness level of undergraduates within the university. And also, by
investigating the other factors which affect both happiness and academic
performances implications can be done to develop the behavior of undergraduates.

Keywords: Academic Performance, Happiness, Grade Point Averages,
Undergraduates

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