It is argued that educators and policy makers must consider nutrition as a critical ingredient in the development of educational interventions principally designed to enhance the participation and academic performance of students across the world (Galal & Hulett 2003, p. 11). Recently, more than ever, academics, educators and health professionals are in agreement that nutrition plays a significant role on a range of variables of school performance, including but not limited to “…enrolment, attendance, grade repetition, behaviour cognition, psychosocial well-being, and achievement levels” (Grantham-McGregor & Olney 2006, p. 105). Nutritional status, specifically overall diet quality is a variable of substantial importance for students as it influences intelligence and scholastic achievement (Ivanovic et al 2008, p. 19), as well as cognition and behavior (Florence, Asbridge & Veugellers 2008, p. 209).
Extant literature demonstrates that although parents, educators, and health professionals continue to tout the interdependence between what students eat and their educational achievement, evidence for this association is not always obvious, not mentioning that recurrent biases on both sides of the argument often override data when this topic is brought to the attention of the relevant stakeholders (Taras 2005, p. 199). More importantly, very few studies have cared to analyze this issue from the cost perspective despite the fact that cost concerns are known to impinge on the availability, affordability, and accessibility of healthy food for students not only in Australia but also globally (Wong et al 2011, p. 11). The present study seeks to fill these two gaps in the literature.
According to one particular study, undernourished school-going children “…have been shown to have decreased attendance, attention, and academic performance, as well as experience more health problems compared to well-nourished children” (Florence et al 2008, p. 210). More resoundingly, preventive supplementation studies suggest a causal relationship between iron-anemia in early childhood on the one hand and poor cognition, late school enrolment, classroom behavioral challenges, poor school achievement, and increased drop-out rates from school on the other hand (Grantham-McGregor & Olney 2006, p. 105).
But while these studies may post conclusive results on school-going children (Pollitt, Gersovitz & Gargiulo 1978, p 478), the same cannot be validated on university student populations in the absence of exhaustive studies (Unwin 2004, p. 144). More importantly, mature students are in charge of their nutrition uptake depending on their level of awareness (Goldberg 1998, p. 99), financial endowment (Wong et al 2011, p. 11), and behavioral orientations (Murray et al 2007, p. 590). It is indeed true that even if food security is regarded to be high in Australia (Wong et al 2011 p. 8), access to a healthy diet may often be limited for this group of the population due to the variables already mentioned, leading to poor dietary intake. This view is reinforced by Cameron and Madden (2011), who suggest that “…the relatively high cost of certain foods compatible with healthy eating and the lower price of others has been suggested as one of many barriers to achieving nutritional goals.” It is therefore imperative to evaluate how students’ compatibility with healthy eating is impacted by the cost of food and, ultimately, how this association affects their academic performance.
The study will utilize Heider’s (1958) psychological theory of attribution to evaluate how nutritional status affects students’ performance. Available literature demonstrates that “…attribution theory is concerned with how individuals interpret events and how this relates to their thinking and behavior” (University of Twente 2010, para. 2). In the context of the research question, it will be assumed that students attribute their performance to some innate variables such as their character, attitude, or personality (internal attribution), or to the inference by some external variables such as dietary status and cost of food (external attribution). This model is justifiable as it will assist the investigator to unearth existing evidence linking students’ dietary intake, cost implications, and their ability to learn through attribution.
References
Cameron, SJ & Madden, DM 2011, ‘The cost of a basket of food compatible with healthy eating guidelines are higher than a comparable basket of standard food’, Journal of Human Nutrition & Dietetics, vol. 24 no. 4, pp. 380-381.
Florence, MD, Asbridge, M & Veugellers, PJ 2008, ‘Diet quality and academic performanc, Journal of School Health, vol. 78 no. 4, pp. 209-215.
Galal, O & Hulett, J 2003, ‘The relationship between nutrition and children’s educational performance: A focus on the United Arab Emirates’, Nutrition Bulletin, vol. 28 no. 1, pp. 11-20.
Goldberg, JP 1998, ‘The recommended dietary allowances: Can they inform the development of standards of academic achievements?’, Applied Measurement in Education, vol. 11 no. 1, pp. 97-105.
Grantham-McGregor, S & Olney, DK 2006, ‘School feeding, cognition, and school achievement’, Current Medical Literature: Paediatrics, vol. 19 vol. 4, pp. 105-111.
Ivanovic, D, Rodriguez, MP, Perez, H, Alvear, J, Diaz, N, Leyton, B…Ivanovic, R 2008, ‘Twelve-year follow-up study of the impact of nutritional status at the onset of elementary school on later eeducational situation of Chilean school-age children’, European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, vol. 62 no. 1, pp. 18-31.
Murray, NG, Low, BJ, Holus, C, Cross, AW & Davis, SM 2007, ‘Coordinated school health programs and academic achievement: A systematic review of the literature’, Journal of School Health, vol. 77 no. 9, pp. 589-600.
Pollitt, E, Gersovitz, N & Gargiulo, M 1978, ‘Educational benefits of the United States school feeding program: A critical review of the literature’, American Journal of Public Health, vol. 68 no. 5, pp. 477-481.
Taras, H 2005, ‘Nutrition and student performance at school’, Journal of School Health, vol. 75 no. 6, pp. 199-213.
University of Twente 2010, Attribution theory, Web.
Unwin, J 2004, ‘Celebrating the achievement of young people in nutrition’, Nutrition Bulletin, 29 no 2, pp. 143-145.
Wong, KC, Coveney, J, Ward, P, Muller, R, Carter, P, verity, F & Tsourtos, G 2011, ‘Availability, affordability and quality of a healthy food basket in Adelaide, South Australia’, Nutrition & Dietetics, vol. 68 no. 1, pp. 8-14.