Insights from Dr. Sarah Gubara, pediatric psychologist at Rady Children’s Hospital Orange County (Rady Children’s)
Key takeaways
- Mental health directly impacts academic performance: Anxiety, depression, and stress consume the cognitive resources kids need for learning, making emotional well‑being foundational to strong academic outcomes.
- Personalized support and consistency matter: Building individual connections with students, identifying their unique gaps, and aligning coping strategies across school and home help create sustainable habits that enhance learning.
- Healthy routines fuel the brain: Science‑backed self‑care supports focus, memory, and resilience, while protecting kids from burnout in demanding academic environments.
Why mental health is essential to achieving academic excellence
In today’s fast-paced educational environment, academic success and mental health are deeply intertwined. Students facing high expectations, social pressures, and personal challenges often struggle to maintain the emotional balance needed for learning and growth. As educators, parents, and institutions aim to foster academic excellence, it’s becoming increasingly clear that prioritizing mental health is not a luxury. It’s a necessity.
Supporting students’ emotional well-being creates a foundation for improved focus, resilience, and long-term achievement, making mental health wellness a critical component of any successful academic strategy. Here, Dr. Sarah Gubara, pediatric psychologist with Rady Children’s, offers helpful advice to ensure students rise to the level of their potential.
Understanding underlying factors affecting academic performance
Post-COVID, anxiety and depression have increasingly affected students’ ability to learn and perform academically. These mental health challenges are linked to lower grades, but schools sometimes treat the issue as a disciplinary problem rather than recognizing it as a symptom of underlying conditions.
Because the brain has limited cognitive resources, managing anxiety or depression takes up mental capacity that would otherwise go toward learning, processing new information, and forming memories, making it harder for affected students to succeed academically.
Helpful strategies to uplevel kids’ academic capacity
Per Dr. Gubara, the first and most important strategy in mitigating dips in performance is to establish a personal connection with each child. It’s crucial to:
- Identify each child’s unique gaps and needs
- Create a sense of ownership in the child for their own learning strategies
- Tailor support based on what resonates with the child personally
This fosters engagement and makes it more likely the child will adopt and benefit from the tools provided. “I think too often we take this one-size-fits-all approach, but we really have to identify the gaps with each individual child,” she states.
The second key strategy is scaffolding, continuing and reinforcing classroom strategies at home. Dr. Gubara emphasizes:
- Aligning coping skills across school and home for consistency
- Ensuring tools and routines are compatible with family values, cultural beliefs, and academic goals
This alignment helps children develop sustainable coping mechanisms within both learning environments. Dr. Gubara also highlights the importance of encouraging a community mindset:
- Promote compassion and emotional repair when things go wrong
- Support both academic and emotional development through collaboration among teachers, parents, and students
“One of the things we want to take a look at is values of success and academic achievement. Because when we talk about academic wellness, what does that really mean? To you and me, it might mean two very different things,” she explains. “I’m a self-professed nerd who loves reading, and I prioritized academic achievement. But, for another one of my siblings who is more interested in the arts, that looks very different. There’s room for both, and we want to encourage that.”
The positive side of online learning and social media
Dr. Gubara, who previously worked as a social media manager, acknowledges her appreciation for social media and highlights its educational potential. For example, platforms like YouTube can be powerful learning tools, offering access to a wide range of topics, from algebra to advanced coding. Social media also enables global learning, allowing students to explore diverse strategies and perspectives.
Yet, she urges striking the right balance. Excessive information intake without time to pause can hinder mental processing. Children need space to reflect and process what they consume to avoid cognitive overload and potential mental health strain. “Consumption without processing is something we do need to be mindful of,” urges Dr. Gubara.
Creating a routine and a dedicated environment is also important when it comes to an online learning space. “Especially as we see so much overlap with how often we’re spending time at home and working from home and studying from home, creating a routine and rituals of care when we approach studying or working is really important,” she adds.
Self-care is science-backed, not fluffy
In regards to self-care, Dr. Gubara emphasizes that this strategy is rooted in neuroscience, not just a wellness trend. Our ability to focus and retain information is directly tied to which part of the brain is activated. Addressing basic vulnerabilities—like hunger, sleep deprivation, and lack of rest—is essential for cognitive function.
She also challenges the cultural norm of “overwork.” Multitasking and pulling all-nighters are widely accepted but harmful. Each all-nighter reduces the brain’s capacity to function, making learning and memory retention harder.
“We need to ensure that we’re taking care of ourselves physiologically. The brain is an organ and we need to treat it like we do all our other organs, which is taking care of its vulnerabilities and, secondly, creating a routine and an accountability partner,” advises Dr. Gubara. “Someone who says, ‘Hey, did you get a chance to take a break today?’ or ‘Did you go for a walk?’ Then, get back to studying or reading or working.”
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Get mental health resources from CHOC pediatric experts
The mental health team at CHOC curated the following resources on mental health topics common to kids and teens, such as depression, anxiety, suicide prevention and more.
