Setting the Stage for Learning and Student Success: An Integrated Framework Linking Stress, Mental Health, and Self-Regulated Learning

Meg Kapil^*Allyson Hadwin

• University of Victoria, Victoria, Canada

Abstract Students in academic environments face a complex interplay of challenges, with stress and mental health emerging as key factors that significantly influence student thriving and success. Mounting academic pressures, coupled with increasingly common mental health concerns, shape the broader context in which learning and student success occur. This paper adopts a holistic perspective on student success conceptualized as both: (a) feeling well, through mental health and stress regulation, and (b) functioning well, through the regulation of learning, academic demands, and performance. Despite the critical influence of mental health and stress on academic engagement and outcomes, these elements are often treated in isolation from research on student success. By integrating theory and empirical findings from diverse domains including self-regulated learning (Winne & Hadwin, 2008), mental health (Keyes, 2005, 2013), and stress optimization (Jamieson et al., 2018), this paper underscores the importance of viewing academic performance and wellbeing as interconnected dimensions of student success. Specifically, this paper extends the COPES framework within self-regulated learning theory by conceptualizing stress and mental health as dynamic conditions that shape and are shaped by learners’ regulatory processes. Stress and mental health are not merely background variables but active components that shape students’ cognitive, emotional, and behavioral functioning in educational settings. Drawing on a range of interdisciplinary sources, the paper argues for integrated frameworks that consider how mental health and stress are key conditions within which learning management occurs. The authors propose comprehensive approaches to student support that integrates wellbeing alongside achievement. Supporting students’ capacity to manage stress and cultivate positive mental health is not ancillary to academic success but fundamental to it and essential for fostering academic environments where students can thrive.