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

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.