Student well-being and its relationships with academic achievement in China have not been well-investigated. This study aimed at investigating student well-being and the trade-off of the well-being and academic achievement with a sample of 1,353 Chinese high-school students from four cities in China during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic period. The six dimensions of well-being (academic, psychological, self, physical, social, and spiritual) were utilised to test the relationships with three subjects including Mathematics, English, and Chinese using a quantitative analysis. In this study, the relationships between six dimensions of well-being and three academic subject achievements were tested in one statistical model. Results showed that spiritual well-being was ranked the highest, followed by psychological, physical, self, and social well-being. Students gave the lowest ranking to academic well-being. The two significant paths identified were between spiritual well-being and two subjects, namely, Chinese and Mathematics. It is interesting to note that the other five dimensions of well-being were significantly associated with any subjects and English was not significantly related to any dimensions of well-being in this study. Our findings suggested that policymakers and other stakeholders should avoid an “all or nothing” mindset on practice when considering well-being as a multidimensional construct.

This study aims to explore the factors that influence the well-being situation of doctoral students in education from a qualitative perspective and draws on the ecological systems theory as an overarching framework. A total of 18 doctoral students in education from 3 universities in Hong Kong were interviewed. In line with the ecological systems theory, individual influential factors may embed and interact with all layers of systems (i.e., the microsystem, the mesosystem, the exosystem, the macrosystem, and the chronosystem) surrounding the doctoral students that hinder or boost their well-being, respectively. These six main areas of concern were identified from a thematic analysis of participants’ responses. The study highlighted several salient influential factors of doctoral students’ well-being, such as coping strategies, social relations, and their living and cultural environment. An interactive effect among specific factors, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and social movements, was also identified. Findings provide theoretical insights and offer recommendations for improving doctoral students’ well-being.