The mediating role of healthy lifestyle behavior in the relationship between religious practice and academic achievement in university students

Background: The issues of religious practice, healthy lifestyle behavior and academic achievement are global agendas. Most previous research has focused on either one or two of the variables, not three of them (e.g. just the relationship between religious practice and healthy lifestyle behavior). And addressing these three issues, by and large, demands a systemic approach to re-thinking the current level and improving it. Objective: To examine the causal relationship between religious practice, healthy lifestyle behavior, and academic achievement in the case of Debre Markos University (DMU) and Injibara University (IU), Ethiopia. Methods: Four hundred forty students are participated voluntarily using random sampling techniques. To attain this objective, a cross-sectional research method design was used. Results: The mean scores of students’ healthy lifestyle behavior is more than average in all aspects. MANOVA results revealed that batch, ethnicity (region), and the university did not display a statistically significant difference among the composite (or combined) scores of both students’ healthy lifestyles and religious practice. However, religious affiliation and gender religious practice and have an effect on religious practice and healthy lifestyle behavior respectively. The correlation output informs that religious practice and healthy lifestyle behavior are positively and significantly correlated with each other. Religious practice also significantly predicted students’ healthy lifestyle behavior. Despite this, the academic achievement of students didn’t have any relationship with their religious practice and healthy lifestyle behavior. Conclusion: University students’ healthy lifestyle behavior doesn’t play an intervening variable in the effect of religious practice on academic achievement. Possible practical implications and recommendations have been forwarded.