The interaction among social support, mental health and academic performance in university settings: An empirical analysis based on chinese college students

Social support and mental health status are crucial factors affecting college students' academic performance, yet systematic empirical research on the relationships among these three factors remains limited. Based on survey data from 2,543 college students across six major geographical regions in China, this study employs entropy method and fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to thoroughly investigate the mechanism among social support, mental health, and academic performance. The findings reveal that: (1) Social support has a significant positive impact on academic performance, with teacher support (r=0.563) and family support (r=0.489) being the most prominent; (2) Mental health status is closely correlated with academic performance, particularly in terms of stress coping ability (r=0.612) and emotional regulation ability (r=0.573); (3) Three major influence pathways are identified: support-dominated, psychology-dominated, and comprehensive balanced type; (4) Mental health plays a crucial mediating role in how social support affects academic performance, with stress coping dimension showing the strongest mediating effect (29.32%); (5) Different groups exhibit significant variations in social support needs and mental health performance. The research findings provide empirical evidence for universities to implement targeted mental health education and academic support programs.