The association between procrastination in academic writing and negative emotional states during the COVID-19 pandemic: the indirect effects of stress coping styles and self-efficacy

ABSTRACT

Background and Objectives:

Limited research has examined the mediating mechanisms underlying the association between procrastination in academic writing and negative emotional states during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the present study, we examined whether stress coping styles and self-efficacy for self-regulation of academic writing mediated the relationship between procrastination in academic writing and negative emotional states.

Design and Method:

Graduate students (N = 475, 61.7% female, M_age of students at baseline = 29.02 years, SD = 5.72) completed questionnaires at Time 1 (March 2020; Procrastination in Academic Writing and Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations), and Time 2 (June 2020; The Self-Efficacy for Self-Regulation of Academic Writing Scale and Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale – 21).

Results:

Emotion-oriented coping and the self-efficacy for self-regulation of academic writing serially mediated the association between procrastination in academic writing and negative emotional states. Meanwhile, task-oriented coping and self-efficacy for self-regulation of academic writing also serially mediated the association between procrastination in academic writing and negative emotional states.

Conclusions:

These findings provide a plausible explanation of the roles that stress coping styles and self-efficacy for self-regulation of academic writing play in the association between procrastination in academic writing and negative emotional states.

KEYWORDS:

• Procrastination
• COVID-19
• task-oriented coping
• emotion-oriented coping
• self-efficacy for self-regulation of academic writing
• negative emotional states

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge and thank Dr. Guifen He from Zhejiang Normal University for her contributions to data collection.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the first author, HW, upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant [number 32171091] and the Humanities and Social Science Research Youth Fund project of Ministry of Education (23YJC190026); Planning Project of Philosophy and Social Science of Guangdong [number GD21YXL04].