Mental health and academic achievement among Chinese adolescents during COVID-19 pandemic: The mediating role of self-regulation learning

Abstract

The changes that COVID-19 pandemic has brought upon the world are unprecedented. Its impact on students’ learning is equally profound, making it critical to heed students’ academic achievement effects that may derive from these alterations. Therefore, the present study explored an integrative model of mental health, self-regulated learning and academic achievement among adolescents during the pandemic. Participants were 1001 senior high school students ( M age = 17.00, SD age = 0.78, 48.7% female) from China. Results showed that the degree to which students were mentally healthy was not significantly related to academic achievement, whereas academic achievement and mental health were positively associated with self-regulated learning. Following structural equation modelling analysis, the effect of mental health on academic achievement was fully mediated by self-regulated learning. Taken together, the findings emphasised the necessity of developing self-regulated learning strategies during public health emergencies and have clinical and educational implications for planning psychological interventions in order to improve mental health and academic performance as well.

Adolescents’ school experiences: Understanding the needs of young people post COVID-19

“…A variety of experiences in how participants coped with home-based learning and their subsequent transition to face-to-face learning could be rooted in having a xed versus growth mindset. Studies have found that students who have a exible mindset were more likely to adapt quickly to home learning, accessing helpful learning strategies and motivating themselves to engage with their schoolwork [19,20]. Other studies have suggested that the increased exibility and autonomy that students were given when learning from home, bene ted some students, particularly those who were better at engaging in autonomous work [5,12,14].…”

“…For others, however, having increased autonomy contributes to positive impacts on their mental health and academic outcomes, and this is particularly salient for high-achieving students [37]. Research has found that students with a growth mindset demonstrated more proactive study skills during lockdowns, which enabled them to self-motivate and remain engaged in schoolwork [19,20]. Many students also found that having the freedom to work in their own space and at their own pace, increased their learning e ciency [34].…”

“…For high performing students, it is possible that the nature of the busy and academically diverse classroom, can have more detrimental effects on their learning [37]. These students may also have been able to access more proactive study skills such as effective time management skills or study plans, which may cultivate environments that they can thrive in [20,37]. Collectively, current ndings along with learnings from previous research indicate that student outcomes will likely differ considerably in relation to the degree of autonomy offered to them.…”

“…Furthermore, literature has suggested that having the comforts of one's own home environment and increased autonomy expanded some adolescent's ability to focus without the usual distractions of a noisy classroom and enforced classroom structure [5,9,12]. Extant literature suggests that individual factors such as having a growth mindset, greater mental health and higher perceived parental support increased a student's ability to access adaptive learning strategies during home-learning and maintain motivation for schoolwork [19,20].…”

“…For students who are more autonomous, however, signi cant academic declines have not been as pronounced [5,12]. Another study found that students with better mental health are more likely to be able to engage in self-regulated learning strategies and access resources to assist with independent learning, allowing them to remain engaged in their schoolwork during the pandemic [20]. Similarly, students who were taught positive coping strategies were more likely to use these during lockdowns, which correlated with positive academic outcomes [21].…”