Study of the Relation between Mental health and Academic Performance of Students of the Islamic Azad University Ahvaz Branch

The relation between mental health and Academic performance has been reported variously in different studies. The present research aims to study the Relation between Mental health and Academic Performance in athletic and non-athletic Students of the Islamic Azad University Ahvaz branch, Iran. For this purpose, 200 students Includes 100 athletic and 100 non-athletic were selected via random cluster sampling method. In order to collect data, the Goldberg general health questionnaire (GHQ-28) was used. The students' total average score was used as an index of their Academic performance. Finally the data were analyzed though using correlation coefficient and independent t-test at the level of confidence of 95%. The results showed that general health and some of its components, such as depression and anxiety, had a significant relation with educational performance, while no significant relation was observed between Academic performance and other components such as physical symptoms and social performance disorders. According to the findings of this research, it can be concluded that the higher the mental health of the students, the better their educational performance, although it seems that the students' educational performance is also affected by other factors and their interactional effects as well. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.