Yan Dongdong, Zhang Huanzhe, Guo Shili, Zeng Wen
Department of Sociology, School of Ethnology and Sociology, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, China.
Department of Sociology and Psychology, School of Public Administration, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China.
Front Psychol. 2022 Sep 29;13:1005708. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1005708. eCollection 2022.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant negative effect on university students' mental health worldwide. The pandemic has resulted in individuals experiencing increased levels of anxiety and stress as well as intensified concerns about the future due to a rise in uncertainty. To eliminate the anxiety and stress caused by uncertainty, individuals who have high cognitive closure needs are strongly motivated to achieve certainty and seek answers, even if the decisions they make in the process are inappropriate or even irrational. This study attempts to analyze the influence of anxiety and stress on university students' academic involution behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic through the mediating effect of the need for cognitive closure. Analyzing the survey data collected from 402 university students from 3 different universities through the mediating effect model and path analysis with latent variable (PA-LV), our results indicate that: (1) The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly increased the levels of anxiety and stress experienced by university students. The path coefficient of the perceived risk of contracting COVID-19 to perceived emotions (including anxiety and stress) was 0.352 ( < 0.01), (2) anxiety and stress significantly and positively affect academic involution behavior. For each unit of increase in the scores of anxiety and stress, the scores of academic involution behavior increased by 0.408 ( < 0.01) and 0.398 ( < 0.01) units, respectively, and (3) The need for cognitive closure had a complete and partial mediating effect on the relationship between the perceived risk of contracting COVID-19 and academic involution behavior, as well as anxiety and academic involution behavior, respectively. The results of PA-LV showed that the mediating effect values were 0.106 and 0.044, respectively. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has not yet come to an end and so clarifying the relationship between anxiety and academic involution behavior will assist university students to optimize the relationship in their own subjective situations, to establish good learning habits, and reduce psychological distress.
新冠疫情对全球大学生的心理健康产生了重大负面影响。疫情导致个人焦虑和压力水平上升，同时由于不确定性增加，对未来的担忧也加剧了。为了消除不确定性带来的焦虑和压力，认知闭合需求高的个体强烈渴望获得确定性并寻求答案，即使他们在此过程中做出的决定是不恰当的甚至是不合理的。本研究试图通过认知闭合需求的中介作用，分析新冠疫情期间焦虑和压力对大学生学业内卷行为的影响。通过中介效应模型和潜变量路径分析（PA-LV）对从三所不同大学收集的402名大学生的调查数据进行分析，我们的结果表明：（1）新冠疫情显著增加了大学生的焦虑和压力水平。感染新冠病毒的感知风险与感知情绪（包括焦虑和压力）之间的路径系数为0.352（<0.01），（2）焦虑和压力对学业内卷行为有显著的正向影响。焦虑和压力得分每增加一个单位，学业内卷行为得分分别增加0.408（<0.01）和0.398（<0.01）个单位，（3）认知闭合需求分别对感染新冠病毒的感知风险与学业内卷行为之间的关系以及焦虑与学业内卷行为之间的关系具有完全中介效应和部分中介效应。PA-LV的结果表明，中介效应值分别为0.106和0.044。新冠疫情的影响尚未结束，因此厘清焦虑与学业内卷行为之间的关系将有助于大学生在自身主观情境中优化这种关系，养成良好的学习习惯，并减轻心理困扰。
