Since the implementation of the policy of college enrollment expansion, the number of college students has increased dramatically, with significant individual differences and mental health problems becoming more and more prominent. At the same time, society’s demand for talent quality has been rising, and academic performance has become an important indicator for measuring the effectiveness of education. This paper analyzes the interaction mechanism between the two systems by constructing an evaluation model of the coupling and coordination of college students’ mental health and academic performance. The study used hierarchical analysis to determine the weights of evaluation indexes, and analyzed the data from 2014 to 2023 using the coupled coordination degree model. The mental health evaluation subsystem contains 4 primary indicators and 12 secondary indicators of social factors, self-factors, school factors, and family factors, with weights of 0.2667, 0.2488, 0.2724, and 0.2121, respectively. The academic performance evaluation subsystem covers 3 primary indicators and 13 secondary indicators of self-factors, family factors, and school factors, with weights of 0.3513, 0.2974, 0.3513.The results of the study showed that the degree of orderliness of the two systems fluctuated between 0.2018 and 0.6417 during the ten-year period, the degree of coupling ranged from 0.2530 to 0.5951, and the degree of coupling harmonization varied within the interval of 0.2563 to 0.5956.The lowest degree of harmonization was found in 2015 and 2018, with the values of 0.3918 and 0.2563, respectively. Both were in a state of heavy dissonance. Overall, the coupling coordination degree of college students’ mental health and academic performance is basically in the range between severe dysfunction and mild dysfunction, and the level of coordinated development of the two systems needs to be improved.
