Second Annual

Many variables impinge on college students ’ academic success. Grade point average (GPA) is one indicator of success and may be influenced greatly by health behaviors. With that said, not much is known about how college health behaviors affect GPA and less is known about whether GPA is influenced by one’s spirituality or religiosity. Religion generally refers to a set of beliefs or actions concerned with those beliefs and spirituality is viewed as the meaning gained from life experiences which is not necessarily theistic in nature (Graham, Furr, Flowers, and Burke, 2001). For the purposes of this study, the terms will be used interchangeably. Empirical evidence supports an association between GPA and certain health behaviors as well as between GPA and spirituality. In one study, later wakeup times were associated with lower average grades in first-year college students (Trockel, Barnes, & Egget, 2000). Trockel et al. also found a positive association between strength training and GPA and between GPA and study of spiritual oriented material. Also, an inverse relationship was found between the number of paid or volunteer hours worked per week and average grades (Trockel et al., 2000). People who frequently attend religious services report a higher prevalence of good health behaviors, particularly not drinking or smoking excessively, and being more involved in social networks (Strawbridge, Shema, Cohen, & Kaplan, 2001). Sleep habits and higher GPA strongly correlated and seemed to account for the variance in first-year college students ’ GPA (Trockel et al., 2000). As previously mentioned, many factors can account for variation in cumulative GPA among college students but empirical support for specific relationships is limited at this time. The present study sought to replicate the findings of Trockel et al. (2000) to gain more precise conclusions about health behaviors of college students specifically, those attending a private institution. It is hypothesized that beneficial health behaviors (i.e. nutrition, exercise, spirituality