{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,15]],"date-time":"2026-07-15T23:33:45Z","timestamp":1784158425899,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":49,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,18]],"date-time":"2025-09-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1758153600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Berea College"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Behavioral Sciences"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The COVID-19 pandemic increased mental health issues and heavily affected the academic performance of college students. The study aimed to assess the association of psychological health and behavioral factors with academic performance among undergraduate students during the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was conducted at a small liberal arts undergraduate college in rural Appalachia. A cross-sectional research design was followed. Data was collected online using Qualtrics in person in July 2021. Participants were selected randomly. World Health Organization-5, Perceived Stress Scale 4, The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7, and Patient Health Questionnaire scales for well-being, stress, sleep quality, anxiety, and depression were used, respectively. Spearman\u2019s correlation, t-test, analysis of variance, and multiple regression were conducted. Overall well-being, perceived stress, generalized anxiety, depression, and sleep quality were found to be significantly different by gender and exercise. The Grade Point Average (GPA) was found to be negatively associated with depression and positively associated with Sleep quality. Findings suggest that students who have scored higher on the depression and sleep quality scale may be affected more during this COVID-19 pandemic in maintaining a good GPA. The findings of this study can help generate hypotheses for further research and guide interventions to address poor academic performance.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/bs15091281","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,19]],"date-time":"2025-09-19T08:11:01Z","timestamp":1758269461000},"page":"1281","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["Relationships Between Psychological Health and Academic Performance Among Undergraduate Students in the Third Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"15","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5267-5195","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ram","family":"Lakhan","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Health and Human Performance, Berea College, Berea, KY 40403, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Maribel","family":"Vergara","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Health and Human Performance, Berea College, Berea, KY 40403, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zoe","family":"Moore","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Health and Human Performance, Berea College, Berea, KY 40403, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4624-2414","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Manoj","family":"Sharma","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Social and Behavioral Health, School of Public Health, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV 89119, USA"},{"name":"Department of Internal Medicine, Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV 89154, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,18]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"503","DOI":"10.2224\/sbp.2005.33.5.503","article-title":"Relationship between depression and anxiety among undergraduate students in eighteen Arab countries: A cross-cultural study","volume":"33","author":"Alansari","year":"2005","journal-title":"Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"348","DOI":"10.1370\/afm.1139","article-title":"Validation of PHQ-2 and PHQ-9 to screen for major depression in the primary care population","volume":"8","author":"Arroll","year":"2010","journal-title":"The Annals of Family Medicine"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Babicki, M., Malchrzak, W., Hans-Wytrychowska, A., and Mastalerz-Migas, A. 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