Nutrition as a Predictor of Mental Well-Being

Smith Hodson, Dionne (2015) Nutrition as a Predictor of Mental Well-Being. Undergraduate thesis, Dublin, National College of Ireland.

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Abstract

Healthy diets (fruits, vegetables, fish etc.) and unhealthy diets (starch, sweets, soda) were examined in order to see if they would be significant predictors of General Mental Health, Happiness, Optimism and Satisfaction with Life levels while controlling for the possibly confounding variables of age, gender, alcohol, smoking and social support. Initially, after using hierarchical multiple regression, the results showed that diet was a significant predictor of only optimism and happiness levels in participants, however after controlling for the confounding variables, the relationship disappeared. In the final model, diet was not a significant predictor of General Mental Health, Happiness, Satisfaction with Life and Optimism. Final analysis showed that age was the only significant predictor of all measures of mental health used, along with smoking status being a significant predictor of happiness, satisfaction with life and optimism. Lastly, degree of alcohol use was also a significant predictor of optimism levels. Future research should take into consideration the role of confounding variables in diet and nutrition research.

Item Type:	Thesis (Undergraduate)
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > Psychology
Divisions:	School of Business > BA (Honours) in Psychology
Depositing User:	Caoimhe Ní Mhaicín
Date Deposited:	01 Oct 2015 09:56
Last Modified:	01 Oct 2015 09:57
URI:	https://norma.ncirl.ie/id/eprint/1965

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