Publication: Association between food security status, negative emotional states and academic performance among undergraduate students at School of Health Sciences in Universiti Sains Malaysia
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Date
2025-01
Authors
Shun, Ong Jing
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Abstract
Food security status needed to get more concerned by university students. Food security status could influence students’ emotional well-being and academic performance. Thus, this study aimed to determine the association between food security status, negative emotional states and academic performance. A total of 136 undergraduate health sciences students from USM were recruited in this study using the convenience sampling method. An online and self-administered questionnaire was distributed to obtain sociodemographic characteristics, food security status (US AFSSM), negative emotional states (DASS-21) and academic performance (CGPA). SPSS version 29 was used to perform data analysis. The results indicated that nearly half of the respondents experienced food insecurity with 27.9% of low food security and 20.6% were identified as very low food security. Among food secure respondents, there were 16.2% of high food security and 35.3% of marginal food security which was the highest among four of the food security degrees. Meanwhile, normal depression, anxiety and stress were the highest percentages within their categories at 63.2%, 36.1%, and 58.9% respectively. In terms of academic performance, 61.8% of respondents obtained excellent CGPA followed by 38.2% with good CGPA. It revealed a significant association between food security status and negative emotional states including depression (χ2 = 9.582; p-value = 0.048), anxiety (χ2 = 14.266; p-value = 0.006) and stress (χ2 = 13.784; p-value = 0.005). Additionally, food-insecure students were less likely to report excellent CGPA than food-secure students (χ2 = 4.275; p-value= 0.039). While depression (χ2 = 18.579; p-value < 0.001), anxiety (χ2 = 14.825; p-value = 0.005), and stress (χ2 = 12.188; p-value = 0.009) were negatively associated with academic performance. These findings highlighted the need to address food security status. Targeted intervention programs should have been carried out to improve students’ food security status which further supported their emotional health and excel in academics.