The same applies exactly to students. You see them more productive when their mental health is stable, while this productivity declines when they go through difficult times that affect their psychological state.
As many studies have confirmed the importance of mental health and its relationship to academic success, we have dedicated this article to you, hoping you will find what might help you achieve your desires with the best results.
What Does the Term "Mental Health" Mean? What Is Its Relationship to Academic Achievement?
We have used the term “mental health” more than once. While some state that this term means the absence of mental disorders and diseases, others go further and define it as: “The positive state that an individual enjoys so that they can realize all their capabilities and energies, solve their problems, face the difficulties and pressures of life, work productively, and interact positively with society. “
Furthermore, the "mental health" term includes the behavioral and emotional state of the individual and how it affects their thinking, behavior, and actions so that they can achieve balance in life to carry out all their responsibilities and burdens while still enjoying life.
The Relationship of Mental Health to Academic Achievement
Mental health - according to the World Health Organization - is one of the most important contributing factors to the individual's balance. Therefore, it has a major role in supporting their ability to work and produce and in providing them with the energy needed to continue.
Students are exposed to many problems due to the nature of their age stage and due to their relationship with their surroundings, starting with the family, which affects their psychological health and disturbs the psychological balance that we talked about. The student's academic life is the first to be affected by these problems and the psychological disturbance, as we notice a decline in their academic achievement.
What makes it worse in many cases is the family’s attempt to deal with the outcome instead of searching for the roots of the problem and its causes. For example, some families resort directly to the private teacher when they notice a decline in their child’s grades in some subjects. Despite this, we do not notice any remarkable progress in their academic achievement because they are still exposed to the same situation that caused them unstable psychological health and academic decline in the first place.
Therefore, the parents must investigate the underlying problem and determine the main reason for their child's low grades. The problem might be their poor self-confidence or inability to integrate with their friends, which affects their psyche, causing anxiety and depression.
How Do Psychological Disorders Affect Academic Achievement?
As we saw previously, there is a relationship between mental health and academic achievement. The results of mental health problems in the student’s social and personal life affect their academic achievement. We will present below the most prominent psychological problems resulting from mental health disorders and their relationship to academic achievement:
1. Poor concentration
Mental health problems cause concentration problems. As a result, the student has difficulty concentrating on the information they receive, as they are in a state of loss and distraction. This will be reflected in the student’s understanding, causing their performance to decline and their grades to fall.
When the teacher notices this distraction and poor concentration in the student, they must submit their observations to the psychological counselor at the school so that the latter can intervene to help the student solve this problem and restore balance to their psychological state.
2. Lack of participation
Students with psychological problems do not participate in class as they should. This has been proven by many experiments conducted on a group of students in schools and universities. They lack motivation most of the time, and they always prefer to isolate themselves from any problem or discussion inside or outside the classroom.
On the other hand, students with good psychological health are more inclined to participate. They can express their opinions and desires inside and outside the classroom, which benefits the student and enhances their academic achievement.
3. Lack of purpose
This problem clearly shows the importance of mental health and its relationship to academic achievement. Students who suffer from psychological disorders cannot set a clear purpose for their academic life or even set a clear study path because they lack the motive and interest in their future. This will certainly affect their professional goals and their professional future negatively.
4. Social isolation
Psychological problems and disorders make the student distance themselves from their colleagues and friends, affecting their ability to form friendships or social relationships, whether in their social environment, at school, or at university. This will undoubtedly impact their academic performance because they frequently miss school and lack motivation to continue learning.
Tips to Boost the Student's Mental Health
It must be very clear, after what was mentioned above, how important is the student’s mental health and its major role in their academic achievement. Therefore, we will present below some important and necessary tips to boost the mental health of students:
1. Let them discover new things
It's important to occasionally break students out of their routine and allow them to experience and learn new things away from their textbooks, studies, and the classroom environment. This can improve their psyche, expand their perceptions, and arouse their feelings, which enhances their motivation and reflects positively on their psychological health and academic achievement.
Ask your child about the hobbies they like and the places they want to visit. You can take advantage of vacation time to do activities that are purposeful and entertaining at the same time to enrich your experiences and knowledge.
2. Set strict rules for using mobile phone
Many recent studies have confirmed the significant negative effects of excessive use of mobile phones and spending a lot of time on social media sites, whether for ordinary people or students. Therefore, do not allow that screen to drag your child to live a virtual life far from reality. Set a specific time for using the phone, participate with them in some alternative activities, and teach them to exploit their time by reading or going to theaters and cinemas.
The virtual world makes the student live in a constant state of stress and anxiety, as they always find themselves forced to compare themselves with others or to watch and hear stories and news that are inappropriate for their psychological state. They will fail in their attempts to flee this virtual world. Be the kind hand that saves them, comforts them, and brings them back to reality.
3. Exercising
Exercising is one of the most important activities you can do with your child, especially if they are students. Exercising has a great role in boosting the student’s psychological health and thus improving their academic achievement.
Additionally, it can improve and revive your relationship with your child and open communication channels with them, allowing them to express whatever occupies their mind and affects their psyche.
4. Make sure they get enough sleep
The student’s physical and psychological health is related to getting sufficient hours of sleep to provide their body with the energy they need to carry out all their duties and activities during the day, the most important of which is studying.
The student will continue to feel worn out, exhausted, and unable to concentrate if they don't get enough sleep. It is worth noting that the student needs approximately 8 hours of sleep.
5. Let them enhance their relationship with their colleagues
No one can deny the devastating effects of loneliness on a student. We are social beings by nature. Withdrawal and isolation will inevitably affect our psychological health and reduce our ability to communicate and build relationships. Spending time with friends and doing activities together are among the things that should be on the schedule of every student seeking good mental health.
6. Make sure your child follows a healthy diet
Physical health is closely related to mental health. Therefore, every student needs to follow a diet rich in important and beneficial nutrients that can give them the energy they need.
In Conclusion
We cannot say that the declined academic performance is a personal problem related only to the students. It is a social problem that affects the student, the family, the school, and even the society as a whole. Therefore, it is important to work together to establish the right environment so that each student can develop healthily, away from the pressures and difficulties of life as much as possible.
We do not mean isolating the student from life. On the contrary, we mean preparing, training, and qualifying them psychologically to withstand these difficulties and pressures. There are many examples of students who succeeded and got high grades despite their difficult financial and social circumstances thanks to their good psychological health and resilience that enabled them to deal with their surroundings in the right way.
Based on all of this, it is crucial to prioritize students’ mental health in the education sector, both for the sake of the students themselves and for the good of society as a whole. Sometimes, society loses brilliant and creative people because they experience challenging psychological situations alone with no one to support them.
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