Correlation Between Happiness and Academic Achievement in Iranian Students: A Meta-Analysis Letter

Abstract

Context: Several studies declared a significant correlation between academic achievement as a behavioral index and happiness among Iranian students. Objectives: The present study aimed to explore the relationship between happiness and academic achievement in students through a systematic review and meta-analysis approach. We also aimed to categorize the influencing factors based on their type and study fields. Evidence Acquisition: Based on a systematic review and meta-analysis approach, we retrieved articles published in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar databases using keywords including correlation, happiness, academic achievement, and students. We also searched the Persian equivalents of the keywords in a Persian database (i.e. SID) from 2013 to 2017. The Q statistic and I2 index were utilized for seeking heterogeneity between studies. The statistical analyses were conducted by STATA 11.1 software. Results: Assessing the correlation coefficient between academic achievement and happiness scores led to z = 0.25 (95% CI: 0 - 7.56, I2 = 98.7%) and r = 0.24 (95% CI: 0 - 50) in university students. Conclusions: Happiness improves the student's academic achievement. Thus, this factor should be considered for improving the students’ performance.